The Extraterrestrial
by Nancy Brown
Summary: Torchwood sees yet another alien menace, but to a lonely little boy, it's his new best friend. Part of my fake third season.
1. Chapter 1

**Note: **Part of my fake third season. This story can be read as the first fic in the series, or you can read "The War At Home" and "Ten Rules for Successful Dating" as prequels.**  
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**Title:** The Extraterrestrial (1/4)  
**Author:** **nancybrown**  
**Prompt:** "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"  
**Rating:** R  
**Characters/Pairings:** Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Johnson, Lois, Alice, Steven, Rhiannon, OCs  
**Warnings:** child endangerment per the film  
**Spoilers:** up through CoE, set post-EW  
**Words:** 25,500 (6,300 this section)  
**Beta:** **fide_et_spe** and **lawsontl** kicked this into shape. All remaining mistakes are mine alone.  
**Disclaimer:** Auntie Beeb owns the characters, Steven Spielberg owns the setting. William Kotzwinkle wrote the novelisation, which was a heavy influence.  
**Summary:** Torchwood sees yet another alien menace, but to a lonely little boy, it's his new best friend. Written for the **reel_torchwood** challenge.  
**A/N: **Fanfiction dot net keeps pulling out the damned scene breaks. I'm trying to fix it, but they change their damned code so often things will get missed. Tell me if you notice something weird because it looks fine on my end. Reason #253 why I kind of hate this website.** *stabbity*  
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* * *

Chapter One

* * *

Back when Gwen first met Rhys, being up past midnight was just part of what they did, drinking strong tea and stronger coffee and weak beer, studying for exams or talking about books and films and who was shagging whom on the third floor. Some nights they'd stay up until dawn, and then crawl bleary-eyed to the back row of the class and try to make sense of the lecture. It was mad and it was fun and it was her life.

She tried to hold onto this thought, glancing at her watch as it passed twelve. The rain had finally stopped, which meant only her feet were still getting soaked. The rest of her was already wet to the bone anyway.

Midnight, in the puddles, as Jack prodded at the broken alien on the pavement, Ianto readied the body bag, and Gwen tried to make heads or tails of the readings on her scanner. Hit and run victim this time, unlike the earlier pair of Horendi that terrorised Llandaff until the pair had managed to shoot one another dead in the middle of the street. Or the three Weevils on the loose before that. Work had been one misery after another today.

Jack nodded at her, and Gwen shook her head. Had he said something while she'd been gathering wool? He tilted his head again, and then she glanced back, saw the approaching Heddlu, and sighed.

"There's nothing unusual on this," she said, and passed the scanner off to Jack before strolling over to smile, chat, and exert authority while trying not to come across as exerting authority. Behind her, the boys loaded the squashed alien into the bag for processing in the morning. No unusual toxins, nothing radioactive, just something fallen through the Rift in front of a cab. They could deal with it after some sleep.

"A few more minutes, and we'll be out of here," she said to the young constable nearest her, a sweet lass with a familiar mixed look of boredom, annoyance, and vague curiosity.

"The driver said he just appeared."

Gwen bit her lip. The alien (Jack still wasn't positive of the species) would have appeared out of nowhere, and the cab driver couldn't have stopped, and that was that. She gave a look back to Jack and Ianto, who were hefting the black bag between them into the boot of the SUV. "Dogs'll do that when they run into the street," she said.

"Dogs."

"Great Dane. Had one when I was a girl. Size of a small pony it was."

"That wasn't a dog." The constable stared at her.

Well, she'd tried. "You know," Gwen said, clutching the small bottle in her pocket, "I think you and I ought to sit down with the driver and ask what he saw, maybe over a nice cuppa?"

"That would … "

"Dammit!" Jack's voice carried, and Gwen was already back to him, weapon drawn, before she registered that neither Jack nor Ianto was in danger. Jack looked at his wrist strap, which beeped in a too-familiar fashion. All the systems back at the Hub forwarded to it these days, what with the three of them always on the move, and also because Jack never spent the night there anymore unless he was working. Rift alert. She sighed.

"Where?"

"Near Bristol." He tapped something to make the beeping stop.

Ianto frowned. "That's further away than we've seen it extend before."

"Yeah." The Rift had grown in intensity but contracted its range for a while after the bombs, after … After. However, over the last couple of weeks, they'd found themselves chasing Rift spikes farther and farther afield. If they went to investigate this one, they wouldn't be home until two at the earliest.

Jack looked at both of them. Gwen tried to wipe the exhaustion from her face, but she probably failed as badly as Ianto did.

"Gwen, I want you to finish up here. See if there's anything else we need to know about this. I don't think we do, but let's not get sloppy because we're tired. Interview the cabbie, and if there are any problems, do a quick clean." Gwen went to protest, but she'd already considered the Retcon, hadn't she? Hardly necessary these days, though, after the planets in the sky and the Daleks in the streets. Everyone knew about aliens. Everyone knew they were murdering bastards. "Then go home. Get some rest. Try not to be in before nine or ten unless the world is ending."

"All right."

"We'll check out the alert. If it's small, we'll take care of it. If it's large, we'll … " She could tell he didn't want to say, 'call UNIT.' Every time they called UNIT, they lost a little more of their autonomy, but they couldn't handle an invasion alone. "We'll think of something. Don't expect us in early tomorrow."

She nodded. "Good luck."

"Good night," Ianto said, and climbed into the passenger side of the SUV. As they pulled away, Gwen realised she had no vehicle of her own.

"So," she said, fixing the constable with a pasted-on smile, "where's that driver?"

* * *

Once the brightness from their arrival through the rift in space-time faded from their sensitive eyes, the team spread out in a wave over the darkened and misty forest floor. A crescent moon overhead peeked through the leaf canopy, winking at them when the clouds parted.

Over the ridge and across the way, the lights of a settlement set the night aglow, but here amongst the saplings and wet bracken, the team was hidden by the night. Zie breathed in, sampling the mixture of lush and noxious odours of this world. Every planet they visited had its smells and its flavours. Scents of luxuriant decay enfolded zir, the mulch of years under zir ducklike feet. Zir job was to collect and protect the tiniest and greatest of vegetable life, taking them to the Great Topiary so that samples might be preserved from every world. It was a holy mission.

Zie went to work.

* * *

At this hour, and with Jack's general disinterest in anything regarding traffic laws, the trip wouldn't take long. Ianto took readings at the dashboard, but they were too far out for more specific than "something came through," so he spent the time drowsing while Jack sang along with the radio.

Jack's tastes in music were as catholic as his tastes in everything else. He had obvious preferences, but at the end of the day (which it was) he'd just as happily take anything with a clear signal, and if he didn't know what he'd picked, he'd make something up. Often, after listening too long to Jack's version of a song, Ianto would have to look up the correct lyrics to jostle the new ones from his head. At the moment, Jack was serenading him, quietly, with "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds."

"Stop messing about with the words."

"Those are the real words."

"They don't make any sense."

"Nope." Jack had a distant look on his face, which usually meant he was thinking about things and people from a time before Ianto was born.

"If you're about to launch into a tale of how you shagged John and Yoko, please skip it."

"Consider it skipped."

They were getting close, and Ianto rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He and Gwen were in a silent competition with regard to who could go longer without complaining out loud about fatigue or being overworked. The winner would be rewarded with keeling over from exhaustion, he was certain, but telling Jack point blank they needed more people hadn't worked, and Ianto refused to follow Gwen's suggestion of denying Jack sex until he agreed. They didn't have many other options for staying sane.

He rechecked the scanner. "That's interesting. It's an atypical breach."

"Define 'atypical.'"

"I can't. That's what it says on the screen." Ianto wished, not for the first time, for a glossary. He'd gladly trade it for Tosh being there, warm and alive, to explain what she'd meant when she programmed it in the first place. He flipped over to the raw data coming in, hoping to make some sense of it. "The readings from the Rift are weird."

"Atypical?"

"This is a stable breach. There aren't the fluctuations we normally see." He turned the screen to Jack, mindful of the sudden road hazard they posed as Jack squinted at the moving graph.

"How far back does that save readings?"

"A few months."

"Damn." He followed the readings into a wooded area, the SUV bumping over the dirt road.

"Jack?"

"It's a manipulation event. Someone's deliberately opened our Rift to come through from somewhere else." He didn't have to mention Hart for Ianto to get the familiar shudder. "See if you can get a lifeform count on non-terrestrials."

Ianto fiddled with the controls and let out a low whistle. "Unclear, but it looks like ten to fifteen."

"Any hints on what they are?"

"Not yet." The signatures didn't match anything in the scanner's database. They couldn't interface with Mainframe from here to cross-check records, and there was no-one back at the Hub to do it for them. But he wasn't going to complain.

They were coming on it fast, and Jack killed the engine. They shared a look. Ten to fifteen possibly armed aliens of unknown origin had come through the Rift intentionally, close to a populated area. The word "invasion" floated between them uncomfortably. This could be an expeditionary force, or, given the right species, the first wave. At least he knew for certain they weren't dealing with Daleks or Sontarans, or he'd have already pulled out his mobile to call UNIT for support.

Instead, he waited for Jack.

"I'm going to check it out," Jack said, after a moment. "Stay here."

Ianto was already out of the SUV, and closed the door without slamming it. "They're in this direction." He started walking.

"Stay with the car, Ianto. I'll keep in comm contact."

"Are you coming or not?"

"I'll make it an order."

"Then you should think of an inventive way to punish me later for not following it. You want to go alone because you've got a good idea whatever this is will get you killed."

Jack nodded. "I'll be fine either way. If they're dangerous, I'll let you know and you can make the call for backup." He clipped his keys to his belt; they'd all lost precious time on missions before, trying to find the keys in Jack's pockets while dodging laser blasts and worse.

"And then I'll likely get myself killed anyway going into these dark, spooky woods," the description was belied by the glow of streetlights from a nearby ridge that overlooked the city, "all alone to retrieve your body from the invaders. So we'd best stick together."

In the crazy and embarrassing daydreams Ianto never admitted to, this was the part where Jack would place his hand on Ianto's shoulder and say: "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you." In reality, Jack bit his lips together, then said, "Fine."

Their torches at the ready, they walked deeper into the woods following the readings on the scanner.

* * *

Lights stabbed out, splintering through the trees, and zie squealed. The Captain swivelled zir head, and zir eyes went wide. The rest of the team felt the swift fear run through the two of them. Discovery! Danger!

The Captain placed a hand with long fingers on the shoulder of the Technician, who hurried with the machine. This world was full of uncatalogued flora, a new ecosystem on every island and continent, and at this location, their teleportation machine could easily move them here and home again. Other locations on this world had this same instability - Sedona, Giza, Perth - but none had this particular abundance of plant life. But now it seemed this site was lost as well.

The team gathered their meagre samples for teleport. Zir own sample, a tiny yew sapling, trembled in zir palm, and zie murmured to it tenderly. Footsteps came closer now, and the thread of panic snapped among them. They fled, spreading out among the weeds and prickly bushes.

Voices, low and harsh, came to zir ears, and zie held in another squeal as zie ran, no longer sure of direction or danger. Zie recognised the intruders as members of the dominant mammal species on this world, bloodthirsty and barely sentient. Zir people were peaceful, had no means of defence should the monsters attack them with their terrible teeth and primitive projectile weapons. The translator unit in zir ear said in a tinny voice: "Over here! I see them!"

Zie cowered, instinctively shrouding zir biosigns, cooling zir skin to the ambient air temperature, and shielding zir energy signature. Thus had their people always survived.

The other monster spoke. "Life signs disappearing. That can't be right."

In the back of zir mind, zie felt the sudden triumph of the Technician as the machine sparked back to life. A second's pause, and zie sensed the call from the Captain: _Come now!_ As zir friends hurried towards the Technician, the monsters veered away from zir position to chase them. Heart pounding, zie hurried to catch up, rejoin zir team. Zie reached the clearing where the rest had gathered, but the monsters were there first, blocking zir escape.

"Wait!" said a monster. The Captain looked around at the monster, fearful, scanning the area for any stragglers, but zie was cut off. The Captain nodded to the Technician, who reopened this strange Rift in space-time, and zir team was gone.

Zie was alone.

"Anything?"

"Residual Rift energy, but it's dissipating at the normal rate. No alien life signs."

"You said the life signs disappeared before they left." The monster held a stick with light shining out, cast it over the trees and bushes. Zie hid deeper within them, barely daring to breathe.

"They faded. Does this species have a chameleon ability?"

"I don't know. Never met them before."

The other monster opened its mouth wide, placed a paw over the opening while breathing deeply.

"Tired?"

"Of course not."

The monster shined its light in zir direction. Then it pointed away. "All right. It's late, and whatever they were, they're gone now. If we're not overwhelmed tomorrow, I'll come back in the daylight and see if I can find anything. Assuming my subordinates will allow me to go someplace on my own."

The monsters walked away, out of range of the translator. Zie waited until they were long out of earshot.

The tiny yew in zir hand shook, and zie scraped dirt away to replant the poor thing before root shock killed it. Zie did not mean it ill, and at least the sapling would not be stranded far from home.

Home.

The horror hit zir full-force, and zie collapsed to the ground, heartbroken. This site would be off-limits now they had been discovered. The Shadow Proclamation took a dim view of races who interfered in the development of worlds such as this one. While they had been careful thus far, hiding away and collecting the minimum number of plants necessary for study, they could not claim non-interference if the dominant mammals noticed their efforts. The Captain would not, could not return for zir, and in fact would assume zie had been killed and consumed by the aliens. Zir friends and family would grieve, would celebrate zir life, and move on.

Zie buried zir face in zir hands.

Above and around zir, the yews in this grove offered their comfort and sympathy, as much as trees could comfort anyone without roots, but what is loneliness to a tree?

Beyond the ridge, the lights beckoned. Zie could go among them, scavenge for food. It meant courting death from more of the monsters, but zir stomach was empty, and zir heart was emptier.

Zie went down, keeping out of the lights, following the smells of what could be food. Large metal and polymer containers lined the throughways of the settlement, and within, zie found discarded melon rinds, sticky half-eaten sweets, mouldy breads, and more delights. Zie stuffed zir face with whatever zie could find, going from container to container, eventually feasting on the sticky cheese inside a greasy pressed-paper box outside one of the many dwellings in the settlement.

The mammals were diurnal. The night would end, the mammals would awaken, and zie would be found, caught, killed.

Just the thought of it made zir upset again, and zie looked around. From a porthole of one of the dwellings, a small round face stared out, mouth open. Zie stumbled back, terrified. Based on the size, the monster appeared to still be in the nymph, or juvenile, stage, but it could summon an adult. Zie fled, scrambling for safety. From inside the dwelling, zie heard a cry.

Away, away, and there was a small building with tools like zir people used with the plants they loved, and zie hid and cowered and gave over to despair.

* * *

Ianto woke to the sound of his mobile. One eye cracked open, and he grabbed it from the table by the bed. Flipping it open told him two things: it was just past eight AM, and his sister was calling him.

"Hello?"

"Why aren't you at work?"

"What?" The sunlight peeking through the cracks of his windows landed on the duvet, poking matching holes of headache into his skull.

"I just called your work number. Are you skiving off today?"

As his brain kicked into gear, Ianto tried to make sense of her words. Work number. The Tourist Centre. Yes. He'd given it to Rhiannon after he'd returned from his suspension. She'd been worried about him after the hours he'd spent on her sofa in his "delayed" grief over losing Lisa. Sometimes she called just to say hello, but he had nothing to say to her, nothing that he could say about his work or his love life or his friends, or how the three intersected so heavily he couldn't breathe some days.

Beside him, Jack rolled from sleep into full wakefulness. His eyes glittered, and Ianto made what he hoped wasn't a futile hand motion for him to stay quiet. "No. Just getting a slow start today. Worked late last night." He'd napped on the way back to the Hub to drop off the hit and run victim, then they'd come home. His second (third?) wind had corresponded with Jack's, and they'd finally fallen asleep around four.

"Folding maps half the night isn't work, Ianto."

"Who is it?" Jack mouthed.

"Don't worry about it," Ianto mouthed back, and then said to her, "Was there something you wanted?"

"Mica's birthday is next Sunday. You should come round, have a piece of cake, say hello. You haven't been by in months." Not since right after the bombs. They'd been insanely busy, but Jack had ordered them both to take a damn day and spend it with family. Jack himself had been gone the whole day as well, which had neatly precluded any chance of inviting him along. Perhaps that had been intentional.

Ianto lay back on his pillow. Jack took this as an invitation to slide his hand under the covers and over Ianto's bare leg. Ianto glared at him. "Um. I'll see what I can do. I probably have to work."

"Civil servants don't work weekends." Oh God, next weekend was also the wedding. The three of them had promised Martha they'd try to make it if the Rift allowed, but they'd be lucky if they could spare Jack, who really ought to attend, much less his Plus One.

"It's a very busy time in the tourist industry." Jack squeezed and Ianto took a breath. He mouthed, "Stop that!"

"What's that?"

"Nothing. I'll try to come, all right?" This was the wrong thing to say around Jack, who grinned and dipped his head under the covers to replace his hand. Ianto tried not to yelp. Or moan.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. I really need to go."

"Ianto, do you have a girl there with you?"

"No."

"You could bring her round, you know."

"I'll talk to you later. Goodbye." He rang off. Then he lifted the sheet to see Jack looking up at him, as innocently as possible under the circumstances. "That wasn't very nice."

Jack made an apologetic noise, which felt pretty bloody amazing. Ianto decided to let Jack make it up to him, just this once.

* * *

Gwen turned when she heard the cog wheel open. Unsurprisingly, the boys came in together. She'd only been in for about ten minutes herself, long enough to turn on her monitor, skim the police reports from the last couple of hours, and wonder if she should run back out to the nearest café for more coffee.

"Good morning," she said. "How was Bristol?"

"Fast," said Jack, as Ianto moved towards his culinary domain, thank goodness. "We had an incursion. They saw us and left."

"That's unusual."

"Better than an invasion," he said, and went to Tosh's station. Gwen hadn't noticed the scanner plugged in to the system. Jack typed something on the keyboard. "We don't have anything matching them in the records."

"Archives, maybe?"

"Maybe. If we aren't busy today, I'll ask Ianto to … "

The Rift alert went off, as though it'd been merely waiting for him to say the words.

Gwen grabbed her jacket from her chair, while Jack called up the information on Tosh's screen. She was not going to complain. She was not going to point out that, had they more people, the job could go back to being a job rather than a death march.

"Okay, kids. Off to Victoria Park. Weapons should be ready and loaded from yesterday. Looks like we're gonna need them." It wasn't as if any of them had taken the time to unload the SUV except, she hoped, for disposing of the dead body.

From the butler's pantry, Gwen was certain she heard swearing. "Two minutes," Ianto said. "Might as well bring this with us." She heard him ready the travel mugs.

She glanced at her watch, saw the time click over to nine. Another great day had started.

* * *

The rhythms of this world were unfamiliar. Zie closed zir eyes in darkness but opened them again in stabbing light. The stunted apple tree in the garden hummed in lazy ecstasy, its leaves drinking in the sunshine. Around them among the dwellings, zie sensed the quiet orgy of oaks and poplars and yews, and zie envied their communion. Chlorophyll was not part of zir physiology, but zir people had their own rituals of replenishment that mimicked those of the plant forms they studied and worshipped and emulated.

As awakenings went on foreign worlds when one was utterly alone, it could have been worse.

The noise was horrific. Vehicles, burning stinking petroleum, growled by along the throughways, as the monsters chattered to each other in their rough tongue: "Be home later, I have a meeting this afternoon." "Mummy, I'm hungry!" "Traffic accident on the M4, with delays." "Let's just try to pretend we like each other, all right?" "I saw a goblin. I swear!" "Don't make up stories. I have to leave for work soon."

On and on, the noises came through zir earpiece, and zie trembled. After a while, they settled. Fewer vehicles, some of the nymphs and juveniles out in the streets. The dwelling nearest zir opened, and an adult monster exited. Zie peered through the slats of the small building to watch it go.

When it was well out of sight, zie thought perhaps zie might be safe. One step out, then two, then three. Zie could flee back to the trees, if nothing else, to hide, to wait for zir Captain who would not return. Zie would exchange the quick death for the slow one once more.

"Hullo?"

Zie jerked and squealed, falling backwards. The voice was one of the nymphs. They all looked similar, these monsters. It could have been the one from last night or another entirely.

When the nymph saw zir, it screamed, and zie screamed again, and ran. The gravity on this world was different than on zir own planet, and where zir low centre of mass and short legs were advantages there, here zie tangled in clinging grasses and tripped over strange plastic shapes as zie squealed in terror.

"Wait! Come back!"

Zie ran, and kept running, and found a low hedge and hid, trying not to cry from fear. After some time, zie heard the nymph come close, and zie hid deeper, silencing all zir biosigns. But the nymph didn't poke and prod, didn't bring weapons and fire and fear.

The nymph brought food.

As the hours passed, zie smelled it: something sweet and sticky and good. Small mammals came, and avians as well, picking at the food left by the nymph. It must have been for them, zie thought. Perhaps the larger mammals cared for the smaller ones.

Time passed. Zie slept on and off, each time expecting to be awakened and eaten by the monsters from last night. Once zie heard voices nearby.

"Mum, it really was a goblin. It came back."

"I know you think you saw something, sweetheart, but it was probably a dog, or someone in fancy dress." The second voice was an adult, possibly stalking its evening meal. Thankfully, while the adult and juvenile came close, they did not locate zir.

After, zie smelled the sweets again, and as the darkness settled, zie ventured out, finding more piled on the ground. Zie was very hungry, and the sweets were unlike anything zie had ever tasted before, even with last night's scavenged meal. More were further along, and zie greedily gobbled them, feeling melted goo drip down one edge of zir mouth. There were more sweets closer to the dwelling.

Zie hid in the small building, the garden building, until zie was certain the diurnal creatures were abed, and then zie looked for more of the delightful food.

Zie spied another pile on the ground, and another, and a form mostly asleep in the middle of the yard. The nymph. Was this then merely a hunting technique? Had the nymph lured zir there to make a kill, or to ready zir for the adult to swoop in? Did it matter anymore? Zie collected the last handful of sweets, carried them gravely to the sleeping nymph, and as it woke and watched zir, placed them on the fabric nest the nymph had constructed to disguise itself. Zie would show it that zie was not afraid to die.

The nymph awoke fully, and gasped, trying to call out in a choked voice.

Zie watched it curiously. Was this a failure of the hunt?

At the back of zir mind, something tickled. The creature's thoughts were tiny, and tinny, and scrabbling for entrance like an untrained fool. No, like a child. This species lacked true telepathy, but could access features of it from another. Zie felt the child's thoughts, as distant and out of focus as any would be just learning. No anger, no hunger, no danger. The child radiated simple curiosity, and …

Like gazing into a pool of water far below in a deep well, zie saw a reflection of zir own loneliness.

"Hello," breathed the child.

Zie held up zir hand.

The child led, with sweets and hope, and zie followed, wanting the former and lacking the latter. The dwelling was huge and frightening, so zie ignored it along with the rest of the overwhelming fear, focused on the piles of food, the calm and coaxing sound of the child's voice. Up to the second level of the dwelling they went, and the child shut the door behind zir, and zie was trapped but zie knew the child meant no harm.

"You're not just in fancy dress, are you?"

Zie tilted zir head. The child tilted its own head. Zie looked around the items in the room, while the child watched, and gabbled in its tongue, and zie was unafraid.

"This is a fish. You know, fish? The shark eats the fish, but nothing eats the shark. And this is Pez. You can eat it. This is a peanut. You can eat it, but not this peanut, because it's a bank. It has money in it. You know, money?"

The child spoke quietly. Oh yes, the adult, and zie felt the fear that the adult would wake up. Why? The child had been so eager to show zir to it earlier. But now zie was a secret, a special secret, and the child's well of loneliness called out for a friend more than acknowledgement.

The child's eyes grew heavy, and strangely, so did zir own eyes. "It's past bedtime," said the child. "We should get some sleep. You know, sleep?" It closed its eyes and made a loud honking sound. "Sleep."

It led zir to a smaller room within the room, filled with soft animals and coverings, and zie easily made a nest.

"Good night."

* * *

Bloody Hoix. Bloody midnight. Bloody not seeing Rhys awake for more than ten minutes this whole week. Bloody cold dinners and worse takeaway. Bloody lack of sleep. Bloody lack of sex, come to think of it (quickies in the morning before work didn't count), though if she ever said that out loud, she knew it'd only lead to Jack saying something inappropriate again because he thought it was funny to make the 21st century humans twitch.

Bloody Jack, for not admitting they needed people, as much as they all missed Owen and Tosh. Bloody Gray and bloody Hart for causing it.

But she was not complaining, dammit.

Bloody competition.

* * *

Zie stayed in the smaller room, the one the child called "wardrobe," until the adult left the dwelling.

"About time," said the child. "I'm hungry."

Zie understood hunger and hoped for more of the sweets, but when zie went to follow, the child said, "Stay. I'll be right here. I'm just going to get us some breakfast." It closed the door behind itself, leaving zir alone.

Zie took the opportunity to paddle around the room. Tiny fish swam in a bowl, their unblinking eyes staring at zir as zie stared back. With a long finger, zie moved across the glassy surface, and the fish followed in a swarm of smoothly wriggling silver bodies. As zie had suspected, these mammals kept other species as pets. Possibly food as well, but then wouldn't the child have simply plucked one out of the water and eaten it?

On the table with the fish, zie found small, plastic figures. These were unlike the mammals on this planet, images of alien species zie hadn't encountered. They all had weapons and snarling faces.

"Do you like those?" The child had returned, placing something good-smelling on the table before taking the plastic figures. It made noises with its mouth, like laser blasts. (Zir people had encountered many violent species, to their sorrow.)

"I've got other toys, too." The child, ignoring the food, pulled out a box filled with models of vehicles, the four-wheeled petroleum-burners and metal vehicles with wings. "This is a rocket ship. Did you come here in a rocket ship?"

It held out its palm, and zie took the tiny red metal toy, stroked the fins. The child pulled out a larger one made of plastic. "This is Boba Fett's ship. See, Boba Fett?" It placed on of the plastic toys inside the ship and made whooshing noises with its mouth.

Zie tried to mimic the whooshing sound, and the child showed its teeth. "Yeah, like that. Mum doesn't like rocket ships. We can play, though." It made more whooshing sounds. "Mum is working a half day today, so we can only play until she gets back."

Zie set down the rocket and wrapped zir fingers around the bowl on the table. "That's cereal. Do you eat cereal?"

The food was crunchy and sweet and drenched in milk. Zie loved it, slurping loudly while the child laughed, and then slurped its own.

* * *

Jack opened his mouth, and Ianto immediately shoved a pastry into it.

"What?" Jack asked around the food, chewing noisily.

"You were about to make a comment about how quiet it is today, weren't you?"

Jack's voice was muffled. "I wasn't."

"You were," Gwen said, hands wrapped warmly around her coffee. "Don't say it."

"Fine, fine." He swallowed. "Won't say a word. I have projects for the two of you, and I believe," he said, treading carefully, "that you may have time to work on them."

Gwen and Ianto shared a look, both waiting to see if this was enough to set off the damn alarm. No. So far, so good.

"Ianto, I want you to do a quick search in the Archives. See if you can find anything on the aliens we found the other night. A description, something. If they can manipulate the Rift, we've probably seen them here before. This isn't a top priority for now, but if we can have a file in hand, we'll be more prepared if they come back."

"I'll look."

"Gwen."

"Hm?"

Jack paused, and it drew out for a long moment. "Do a search. UNIT files, hospital files, MoD, even call the Home Office. I want a list of names, a long one. Plenty of choices, plenty of data. Ianto, when you're done in the Archives, you can help her with background checks."

"We're recruiting?" Gwen asked.

"We're open to the possibility." He finished his coffee with a loud slurp, which Ianto managed not to wince at, and stood. "I'll be in comm range."

"Where are you going?" Ianto hurried behind him to help with the coat.

"Back to the Bristol site. I'm going to check out the area, see if I can find any more clues in the daylight."

"Are you sure you want to go alone?"

"Positive. Anyway, you two want more help around the place. You two can find it."

And he was gone.

Ianto counted to thirty inside his own head while he cleared the dishes. Gwen already had a pad of paper out and scribbled notes excitedly. "I'm going to see if we can expand the team to six or seven," she said under her breath. "More hands make lighter work."

Ianto nodded absently then went to his station. Sure enough, Jack had left the SUV and taken his own rarely-used car. It could be that he intended to leave them the SUV in case of emergency, but Ianto thought it might have more to do with the fact that Jack's car didn't have a tracker. This was one of those times Jack would rather not let on where he was going.

Ianto frowned to himself. He headed to the kitchenette to wash out the mugs.

* * *

Zie heard the sound from below of a door opening and closing. The child made a face. "That's Mum. You stay here and be quiet." Zie went back into the wardrobe, huddling among the soft toys.

From below, the adult bellowed, and the child hurried down the stairs. "Coming, Mum."

Zie was alone. The mental link they'd formed said the child was dissembling. The parent wanted it to go outside and enjoy some recreation. It was still in the summer months of this hemisphere's growing season, but the child had thoughts of daily education beginning soon.

It came back up the stairs and closed the door. "I told Mum I didn't want to play outside. You're more fun." It showed its teeth again.

The child returned to what it had been showing zir: a primitive computer with access to a world wide information database. Currently, they were viewing a page on star systems. As zie took in the information, zir last hopes crumbled. This planet was so backwards, they had only left their own world to go to their own moon. Zie had already known there would be no interstellar freighters loaded with goods on which to barter passage, but really, not even so much as a scientific survey ship out to another planet in the same system?

Zie tried to make sense of the star maps on the screen, but without a ship, there was no point other than to torture zirself.

Downstairs, a door opened again. The child frowned. From below, zie could hear the muted tones of another adult. Ah yes. This species required two sexes to breed, unlike zir own. This would be the second parent returning. The expression on the child's face was matched by happiness in its mind.

"In town for work," came the translation in zir ear, of the rumbles below. "Thought I'd drop by."

"Hide," it said, and zie went into the wardrobe once more. The child forgot to shut the bedroom door on its way down the stairs, so zie could hear it clearly as it ran.

From below, zie heard the other voice rumble, "Hey, Tiger!"

The child's mind was overrun with joy. "Uncle Jack!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

* * *

"'In town for work?'" Alice asked, as Steven played outside with his new glider. He'd apparently been holed up in his room all day, so she was glad he was finally getting some fresh air.

"There was a Rift event not far from here." Jack drank his tea uncomfortably. Funny. She'd seen him in any number of situations, but standing in a normal kitchen in a normal house with his normal family was enough to set him on edge.

"The Rift isn't supposed to come this far out."

"It doesn't, typically. That's why I was checking. And I figured, since I was so close … "

" … you ought to just drop by unannounced."

"If you're busy, I can go."

Ah. That was the game this time. He'd done this before, coming to the house when it was inconvenient, or when she was tired, or when she was feeling particularly uncharitable about certain aspects of her childhood. Like a magnet sometimes he was, or a psychic, though he swore he wasn't. But he'd come and he would make her the bad guy, the one who said to leave, who told him to stay away from her son, even though Jack knew it was for everyone's good. Damn him.

"I'm not busy. It's only half days just now."

He let out a weak laugh. "I think I've heard of those."

She pressed her lips together. She knew so many of Jack's tales were lies, and the rest were designed to make her feel bad for him. Mum had let her in on that secret years ago. But she remembered the broken expression on his face when he'd visited a few months ago, how he'd said his own brother had set all those bombs around Cardiff, how two of his coworkers (and closest friends) had perished, how he'd lost centuries under the dirt of Wales. He'd have worked non-stop since then, she was certain, driving himself as hard as he could to fight the battles he'd already lost. Mum had told her about that, too.

"You could retire. You've put in enough years for a pension."

"I could do." He took another sip. "Have you heard from Joe lately?"

She didn't let herself flinch. He wasn't trying to be cruel. The last time he'd come, he couldn't even remember Joe's name. Just another thing he'd lost underground, and part of her felt vindicated, even now, that Joe had been forgotten and she had been remembered. She didn't care if it was petty. "He's still with _her_. He sends Steven postcards. Called him just last week."

"That's good."

"Why are you here, Dad? Work, fine. But you never drop in without a reason."

"I'd come around more often if you'd let me. Every day." Another lie, though one she thought he was telling himself this time. She let it pass.

"You're not good for Steven. He doesn't need secrets in his life." Alice didn't either, but she'd kept hers forever.

"Everyone's got secrets, Alice." His eyes went far away for a moment.

"You're the king of secrets. I'm just another one on the list." Before he could open his mouth to argue, she said, "And there are worse things to be. But you only tell me the things you think I ought to know, and we both tell Steven less than that. You can't expect people to trust you if you never give them a reason."

He spread his hands, nearly tipping his tea as he did. "You said you didn't want anything to do with Torchwood."

"And that's all you are?"

"No. Alice." He stopped, took a breath. "There's this species, they live in the Omega sector of a galaxy really far away from here, or they will." She stared at him. "They believe they can split their souls, put them in these special sacred vessels. The richest people own a lot of fancy vessels each. The poor scrape by with one or two per family. The idea is, even if something happens to you, part of your soul will always be safe from demons and witches and whatever. But the side belief is that if the vessel is destroyed suddenly, before you do a ritual to move it somewhere else or take it back, that part of your soul is lost forever."

Her father could go on about alien customs for hours. "And?"

"And I can't face losing another part right now, all right?" He played with the handle of the mug. "If the Rift can extend all the way out here, you both could be in danger. So I wanted to check in on you."

She wasn't sure if she believed him. Rarely did anything good come of taking Jack at his word. She supposed there were worse excuses for a visit.

"Fine," she said, in defeat and acceptance. "As you can see, we're safe. Would you like to stay for supper?"

Jack's face lit up, and she sighed again. Another thing Mum had taught her: her father thrived on attention and affection, feeding on it like a geranium in sunlight.

A detail, noticed and forgotten, that had tickled at the back of her mind suddenly came into focus. The geranium she kept on the windowsill in the kitchen, which was to say the geranium she'd been watching slowly die on the windowsill because Alice's thumb was not green, was starting to perk up again. Well, that was something, anyway.

The strap on Jack's arm beeped. He stared at it, his whole body slumping. He touched his ear. "Report." A pause. "All right. I'll meet you both at the site, but I could be a while." He turned back to Alice.

"Work?" she asked, already knowing.

"If you really want to know, I could tell you."

"I don't. At least tell him goodbye before you run off." She didn't have to add anything about the many times he'd done it before. She wondered if he even remembered.

"I will. I'll be by again soon."

She nodded. There was nothing else to do, save kiss him on the cheek and let him play with her chin before watching him head off in a ridiculous swirl of coat.

* * *

The child took a long while to return to the bedroom, but it brought food smuggled in its shirt when it did. Zie snacked on apples and cheese and crunchy wafers as the two of them looked at the computer again. With some searching, zie found a clearer picture of where this planet was in the galaxy. Zir own world was distant, so distant that a call sent out by even the strongest signal Earth could produce would take thousands of years to reach zir homeworld. Zie suspected, based on the position of the stars, that zir world might be further away in time as well as space, perhaps millions of years from now. Time and relative dimension in space was the job of the Captain to know and the Technician to navigate.

"And this is Wikipedia. Mum says it's the best place on the Web to find out something that's wrong." The child clicked, and another screen jumped up. "This is YouTube. It's got loads of things from the telly."

A video began to play, flat and tiny: a dark-haired adult human (their word, strangely melodic for such a savage race) watched an even smaller screen where a green puppet and a child were discussing the basics of language.

The human on the screen said, "D'Argo, you should study this. El em en oh pee."

Zie wrapped zir mouth around the sounds: "El em en oh pee."

The child jerked. "You can talk?"

"El em on oh pee!"

"That's brilliant!" The child closed the screen, and zie sighed, having hoped to learn more. The child shoved a toy in zir face. "This is Greedo. Can you say 'Greedo'?"

"Gareedo."

The child made a happy noise. "Now say 'Boba Fett.'"

"Boe Bafit." The plastic toy now in front of zir did not look like His August Personage, so perhaps it was a coincidence.

The child showed its teeth again. It placed a hand on its chest. "I'm Steven. Stee-Ven. Stee-Ven."

"Stee-Ven."

The child laughed. From downstairs, the adult said loudly, "What's going on up there?"

"Just playing with my toys!"

"Stee-Ven. Stee-Ven."

* * *

Jack knew he used the SUV for personal reasons more than was strictly allowed under the guidelines (as Ianto would remind him whenever Jack submitted petrol receipts) and when he was stuck in traffic on the M4, he remembered why. His own car, flash as it was, didn't have the handy running lights or the on-board system rerouting cars out of his way.

Gwen and Ianto had left their comms open so he could listen in and track them. As the tail lights ahead of him went on, he had to stop himself from shouting orders. He wasn't on the scene. He couldn't know what was going on well enough to be of help. Besides, he'd trained them both, and he had to trust them.

He slammed his palm on the horn.

_"Over there,"_ said Gwen in his ear. _"I'm going to lead it out, you shoot it."_

_"You're the better shot. I'll go."_

_"All right. Be careful, pet."_

Jack wanted to say something, but it wouldn't help. He heard someone move, and then Ianto shouted, _"Over here, you ugly brute!"_ Jack could picture him waving his arms, or maybe he'd just do that funny little wave.

There was a roar, just at the edge of hearing, and then shouts (bystanders?) and then two shots cracked as Ianto grunted.

Gwen swore. Jack said, "Update!" From behind him, the cars honked and he noticed a whole extra two metres in front of him, nosed his car up.

There was another roar, and Jack started looking around himself for any possible exits to get there faster.

_"Apparently, he had a mate,"_ said Ianto in a falsely sanguine voice. Jack heard two more shots, and a lot of shouting.

Jack said, "How badly are you hurt, and where's Gwen?"

_"Gwen's kicking the second one in the head. I think she's annoyed."_ He didn't answer the other question, and that meant he was injured badly but that it wasn't life-threatening.

"Gwen," said Jack. "Stop kicking the aliens. You've got cleanup to do, some bystanders to convince they saw a wild animal, and it sounds like Ianto needs a trip to A&E."

There was a faraway sound very much like a designer boot connecting with a deceased skull. _"Fine."_

The car ahead of him moved another metre. Jack revved his engine and tried not to worry.

* * *

Gwen heard the cog door alarm go off just as she'd finished hefting the second bulky alien into the autopsy fridge on her own. She let herself take a moment to catch her breath as Jack bellowed: "I'm home!"

"It's about time," she said, wiping her hands with a rag. The slimy ichor of the monster's blood refused to come off. "The aliens are in autopsy if you want to try identifying them." She didn't tell him that she couldn't Retcon the gawkers at the scene. He could read that in her report later, when she had time to sit and write a report.

"Thanks." He turned his head looking around. "Where's Ianto?"

"Still at A&E. His right arm is broken in two places."

"And you left him there?"

"He's twenty-six, not five. He can wait for the doctor without a nanny." The expression that crossed Jack's face told her several things at once. She tried for tactful. "Have you had the chance to take him out for his birthday yet?"

"We've been busy."

"It's been a week."

"I can use a calendar, Gwen, thanks."

She waved her hand. "None of my business, I'm sure."

"I'm sure."

"Anyway, unless the Rift acts up again, I'm off home for a shower. You can go see Ianto at the hospital."

"You said he was a grownup."

"Yes, and he's not _my_ boyfriend. Go visit him, and drive him home, and call me when all hell breaks loose, because it will." She gave him a peck on the cheek on her way out. If she was lucky, she'd be able to shower, eat, and have a snuggle with Rhys before the Rift shat upon them again.

She stopped as she reached the door. "Jack."

"Yeah?" He was already opening the freezer door to take a look.

"You know he'll be out for a few days at least, right?"

"We'll handle it."

"Just the two of us? And don't you go telling me that Ianto can still work with his arm in a cast. If you told him to, he would, and it would get one of us killed."

"If we call UNIT, that's the ball game. They'll come in here and take over, and we will never be our own organisation again."

"Then don't call UNIT, though we ought to ask them for Martha on a long-term loan after the wedding. Call the Home Office. We need people, Jack, if only for a little while. We need someone to dig through this paperwork. We need people to go into the field. I've got that list started for you. We can recruit in leisure, but we need warm bodies, and we need them today."

She didn't ask him where he'd been, or try to insinuate that, had he not been off chasing one Rift event in Bristol, that Ianto might not have been hurt by the fallout of the one here. She could tell by his expression that she didn't have to.

"I'll make the call."

"Thank you." She left before she could say more and ruin the moment.

* * *

Not wanting to alert the parent, they played quietly this time, while Steven taught zir the names of toys, objects, items on the computer screen. Zie obediently repeated the words, grasping meaning where zie could.

"I have to go to school next week. You know, school?"

"School."

"I sit in the classroom and have to learn things. It's dead boring, but there are other kids there." The child made its lips move downward. "My best mate Bobby moved when the summer holidays started. He lived down the road. He said we could still play sometimes, but Mum says when people move, you don't really see them again much."

Zie had nothing to add to this and stayed quiet, moving the wheeled vehicle along the floor.

"Dad moved. I don't see him ever." The child moved a vehicle beside zir. "You could stay here. You don't have to move. This could be your home."

Zie sat back on zir small legs. "Home."

"Yeah, home. This could be home."

Zie shook zir head and pointed out the window at the far trees. "Home."

"Your home's out there?" Zie nodded. "In space, like?"

"Home."

The child nodded to itself. "I could try helping you. Help you go home."

"Home." Zie thought of another word the child had taught zir. "Please."

"Okay. We'll see about finding your home. There's aliens here all the time, loads of them, Daleks and everything. Maybe they can get you home."

Zie trembled. Zir people knew of the Daleks.

The adult from downstairs called, "Steven! Supper!"

"I gotta go. I'll bring you something to eat, yeah?" The child made another face. "When you go home, d'you think I could come with you?"

Zie could not answer. The thought of going zirself was too immense to contemplate.

While Steven was downstairs, zie found a flat metal piece that could serve as a tool, and zie removed the cover of the primitive computer to inspect it. Electronics, as zie had thought. Still, with the right modification, even this could be useful. Zie could not control the Rift, not without much more precise instruments than these, but perhaps with some tinkering, zie could make this device communicate through it in the event of a natural opening. Zie longed to tell zir family that zie lived, and if that was all, so be it.

After a painful spark, zie remembered to unplug the item from the power outlet in the wall.

* * *

Ianto opened his eyes to the incongruous sight of a bunch of red roses in his face and Jack's grin behind them. "What the hell?"

"And a good day to you," Jack said, setting the roses beside him on the bed.

"Is it tomorrow?" asked Ianto, still muzzy in the fashion of all people who have had the good painkillers kick in, trying to suss out which of the three Jacks currently moving about was the real one.

"Nope, just a little later. You had a nap."

"Oh good."

"I brought you flowers."

"I saw." Jack's face indicated there was more to this. "Thank you."

Jack beamed. "You're welcome. You're in hospital, and you bring people in hospital flowers. Right?"

"Traditionally, I suppose."

Jack was very good with people in very specific situations, while in others, he had the social skills of a concussed hyena. Much of this, Ianto had learned, was affectation layered over disinterest in what Jack considered absurd customs. The rest came from his honest cluelessness, which was in turns endearing and frustrating. The appropriate timing of flowers was, for Jack, under the "hyena" category, and suspicion bloomed in Ianto's mind, even as he played with the tissue paper with his good hand.

"Did Gwen tell you to do this?"

"Gwen had nothing to do with the flowers."

"All right."

Jack made a frowny face. "By the way, you're not mad that we couldn't go out for your birthday, right?"

Ianto made a show of pulling out the front of his shirt and looking down it before saying, "Still not a thirteen year old girl."

That earned him a genuine smile. "Okay." Jack busied himself around the semi-private room, peering over Ianto's chart, poking at things. As soon as Dr. Patanjali came back in, Jack asked whether or not Ianto was ready to be released.

"Of course," said the doctor, watching between the two of them as Jack settled a hand comfortably on Ianto's good shoulder. "Will you be driving him home?"

"Just as soon as I can."

"I'll bring the paperwork." And with one last glance at the roses, he left them alone again.

Ianto wasn't sure what to say in the sudden silence. He was still surprised and a bit freaked out when Jack made obviously romantic gestures in public. It was one thing to have his amazing and weird relationship with Jack, to work with him and go home with him at night and wrap his own mind around the fact that this sexual force of nature, despite everything and everyone else, was content to be with just him. (Ianto tried not to think about it much because he was usually left with a deep inadequacy made of "Why me?") But it was another thing entirely to see the two of them reflected in the eyes of strangers as "that gay couple." Jack hated labels, said they reduced people to tiny boxes, and these were the times Ianto could agree with him. When they were "the gay couple," suddenly it was all (to other people) about who was the woman, or about the sex, or about how it differed from a "real" relationship, or about who was using whom, or about if they were going to use the word "marriage" if they signed papers. Gwen was their closest friend, and Ianto thought sometimes that even she didn't quite get it, although she tried. Occasionally, though, she had that expression on her face that told him she was waiting for them to come to their senses, that she regarded what they had as a fling: fun for both, but not half so strong as what she had with Rhys. Occasionally, Ianto thought the same thing, wondered when Jack would catch onto the fact that he could really do much better, or when Jack would get bored.

And then Jack would look at him the way he was looking right now, eyes unguarded and filled with affection that neither wanted to put words around, and Ianto knew that everything he felt was returned, and more. Knew that the important thing with Jack was that, despite having all the universe to choose from, this was what he chose. Fuck other people, fuck their labels and their bullshit theories, and fuck them twice if they thought this wasn't real.

Jack said, "Hey. You okay?"

Ianto nodded, and his head swam. "It's possible I've reached the 'bitter' stage of my medication cycle."

Jack chuckled. "I'll try to stay on your good side, then. Which reminds me. We're bringing in help, starting tomorrow."

"That was fast. Gwen only had a few names for you before we were called out."

"And we're going to explore them more thoroughly. But in the meantime, I've called in some favours from the Home Office. While you're recuperating … "

"It's just a busted arm, Jack."

"While you're recuperating," Jack said again, louder this time, "you can help get the temps up to speed."

"And then Retcon the lot when we're done with them?"

"Maybe. Or maybe they'll be worth something."

Just then, the doctor came back in, and they dropped it. Ianto awkwardly signed his release forms and instructions with his left hand. As his next of kin, Rhiannon would have power of attorney should something happen to him. While Jack stood there with him, Ianto thought he might have to do something to fix that. The doctor kept shooting glances to their hands to look for rings, clearly kept stopping himself from asking Jack to sign. Were they really that blatant?

"Ready?" Jack asked, when Ianto had signed the last paper, miraculously without the Rift alert having sounded once.

"Ready." He shouldn't have even let himself think it. Jack's wrist strap began beeping.

* * *

She got the call while she was out working in the field. "Johnson here."

"Agent Johnson, I have some good news. We have an in with Torchwood."

"I know. We've been working on it for months." The doctor was irritatingly eager with his assignment.

"That avenue should be paused for now. Keep it open."

"Sir?"

"They've requested help. I'm sending you."

Johnson opened and closed her mouth. She settled on, "Do you think that's wise?"

"I think it will give us the perfect opportunity to study Harkness, and if you fail or are discovered, we still have the doctor in reserve."

She tightened her lips. This felt like months of planning going to waste, but she always followed orders. "Yes, sir."

* * *

This wasn't the nicest hotel Lois had ever stayed at -- that honour went to the five star place Hugh stayed at in Brussels for that weekend she went to visit -- but for Cardiff, it was pretty flash. She'd arrived at nine PM, had been told when she asked that the other members of her party were still in transit, and had been led to a sumptuous suite that she couldn't help but feel must be reserved for someone else.

"Are you sure?" she asked, while scrambling in her purse for a tip for the porter.

"Yes, ma'am. The Torchwood account always books these same rooms."

"Oh." She found a ten pound note and handed it to him.

"Thank you, ma'am. Anything you need, just call."

"Thanks."

And she was alone.

Lois left her bags and sat on the edge of the sumptuous bed. This morning, she'd been phoning her supervisor to find out where her next assignment would be. This afternoon, she'd been called in, told there was a particular Special Ops group who'd specifically requested someone with her background, then sent to bloody Wales.

She'd called Hugh on the drive here. Hugh's job had him out of the country more often than not, seeing Shanghai, Lisbon and Los Angeles. Lois finally had an opportunity to travel for her work, and she was in Cardiff.

He didn't laugh at her, but she'd been able to tell he'd wanted to.

With a sigh, she opened her garment bag and began hanging up her clothes. After that, she thought, a shower would be perfect.

* * *

Gwen arrived at work just before eight. Normally, Ianto would have opened the Tourist Office entrance around then, but he was out for the day, poor lamb. She had a coffee from the good café in one hand, her keys in the other, when she noticed the haphazard little group around the locked door, trying and failing to look inconspicuous.

She hid her smile.

"That's a large group of out-of-towners for this hour," she said in greeting.

The woman in the dominatrix-chic getup stepped forward stiffly. "You must be Cooper."

"Inside," Gwen said, tilting her head towards the locals walking along the Quay who might overhear something.

"Of course."

Gwen unlocked the door, mindful of the eyes on her. "This was how I came in the first time. I tried to sneak in with a pizza delivery."

A nervous laugh went through the other three, the kind of laugh that said they weren't sure if she was kidding. The dominatrix simply stared at her until they were all inside with the door firmly shut behind them.

"Okay," she said. "I'm Gwen Cooper, Gwen Williams if my mother-in-law asks." Another nervous laugh. "I've been here about two years, and I'm the second in command. Any questions you've got, you can bring them to me, but Jack's word is the final authority."

"Yes, ma'am," said the dominatrix, and Gwen was really going to have to stop thinking of her that way.

"Why don't we start with your names and a bit about your background?"

"Johnson." Thank God, now she could call her something else. "I've been in Special Ops for the past five years."

"Alex Lin," said the man next to her in the Dockers and button-down shirt. He shook Gwen's hand. "I'm still in my residency, but I was told you needed a medic today."

"We do. Thank you."

"Lois Habiba." She was young, pretty, and her outfit was professional but trendy. Gwen felt badly in advance for how much her clothing bill was about to suffer. "I'm a PA, mostly general support and admin."

"It's good to meet you."

"Dave O'Mara. I'm tech support back home. They told me you're dealing with some unique stuff here." He was the sole member of the team to be dressed down: denims and a red tee-shirt with The Flash's emblem printed on the front.

"You could say that." Gwen glanced up at the camera in the corner. She wondered if Jack was watching this. It'd be just like him to …

The hidden door slid open. Jack stood there in his greatcoat, trademark smirk on his face. "Welcome to Torchwood."

* * *

They played downstairs while the adult was at work. Steven had been upset initially at zir use of the computer, but had apparently forgotten in lieu of showing zir things on something called a "telly." They ate handfuls of white starchy fluff that tasted of salt, and watched documentaries about previous alien encounters. Zie was unfamiliar with Gallaxhar's people but was appropriately horrified to see the monsters with which the Earth defended itself.

As they watched, zie paid close attention to the communication devices. "Phone."

"Yep. That's a phone."

"Phone home."

Steven laughed. "That'd be brilliant. You got a mobile, just dial your rocket ship."

Zie left the warm sofa and padded up the stairs. The child followed.

Zie had most of the machine together. Zie could not manipulate the Rift, but a spike nearby could transmit the communication. Zie had been experimenting on the pot plant in Steven's room and thought there might be a power source utilising the thrum of the sap and the wind in the trees.

The trees were vital. Zie needed to get back to the site.

* * *

As the new people settled in, Gwen found herself in the butler's pantry. She knew better than to touch the coffee machine, because some mistakes only needed to be made once to leave an indelible impression, but she was certain she could get some tea together. While Ianto was out, Lois would probably handle this, but Gwen could take a turn.

Down below, she could see Jack already starting the thumbscrews on Dave. But then, Tosh had been with him the longest, hadn't she? Jack had been adamant about not replacing people, but instead finding new good matches, which was funny as Gwen herself had been hired while her predecessor's body was still getting down to temp in the morgue.

Alex had already disappeared into the autopsy bay, wide-eyed at the array of medical tech. Lois sat at one of the empty stations, handbag still beside her rather than put away, reading over the standard "introduction to Torchwood" forms. Johnson had her own file of the same papers, but instead of reading them, she stood, observing.

"Interesting," said a voice right behind her, and Gwen very nearly screamed.

"Ianto, don't do that!"

He grinned, which belied his, "Sorry." And now, even as her heart was going a mile a minute, she noticed that he was dressed far more casually than she'd ever seen him.

"I didn't even hear you come in." Which was politer on the whole, she felt, than asking him directly if he'd just bunked at the Hub last night.

"I came through the car park. Didn't want to make a fuss."

"You should be home." She took in the stoned look in his eyes. "You certainly shouldn't be driving."

"I didn't. I called a taxi."

"So he doesn't know you're here yet."

"Not yet." He turned to the coffee machine, and then went into a full-body sigh as realisation struck that he wasn't going to be able to use it.

"Walk me through it?" she said with a smile.

A few minutes later, a distinct smell floated through the Hub, and Jack broke off from abusing Dave to say, "Oh, that's unfair."

Gwen peered over the edge so she could watch Jack's face when Ianto said loudly, "Stop whining, sir. It'll be ready soon." She was rewarded for the effort.

Jack's boots clattered as he made his way up. "You're supposed to be home resting."

"And I'll go home later to do just that. But unless you've magically discovered how to use the filing system in the hour you've been here this morning, I'm the one who has to train whoever's going to be doing it."

As he rounded the corner, Jack took in Ianto's outfit with an approving glance. "Interesting outfit choice." Jogging bottoms and a tee-shirt weren't exactly what Gwen would call an "outfit" but Jack didn't seem to mind.

Behind him, Lois tiptoed up the stairs while Johnson remained watching from below. Dave kept his head down, probably relieved not to be under Jack's glare. Alex nipped out of the autopsy bay to see what was going on.

Good God, it was actually crowded in here.

Ianto turned pink. "As it turns out, these are the only trousers I could put on myself. And I knew if I asked for help with the zip, we'd never … Hello!" This was to Lois, who stood behind Jack, clearly wondering if she'd wandered into the wrong conversation.

"Lois Habiba," said Jack, "may I introduce you to Ianto Jones? He'd shake your hand, but if he could, you wouldn't have had to come all this way."

Gwen half-watched as Jack introduced Ianto around while she got the mugs ready. She reached for extras, letting her fingers brush against Tosh's mug. Owen had sadly retired his own after his first death, but Tosh's still sat on the shelf, waiting. Gwen secretly suspected Ianto talked to it sometimes. She gave it a little pat and moved it carefully to the back of the shelf. The new people could drink out of other mugs, and if she had to, she'd buy more herself.

After coffee, she'd take the new people down to the firing range. She could even manage to do it without fondling the trainees, a trick Jack had never mastered. (After her own early lessons, she'd asked around and got in reply two blushing mutters and one loud and detailed reminiscence from Owen.)

Speaking of groping, as Jack introduced Ianto to Alex, she noticed his fingers slipping down the back of Ianto's waistband. The glance Ianto sent him said, "Stop it," and the grin Jack sent back said, "Make me."

Ah, Torchwood. Come for the excitement of fighting aliens, stay for the long hours, the complete lack of public recognition, and the constant sexual harassment.

* * *

When the call came through, Ianto had just finished explaining the hierarchy of the document system to Lois, who'd nodded, taken notes, and was disturbingly quick with her responses when he quizzed her. He understood that she was there to take over his position for a short time, but as she zoomed through the files, fetching a recently-scanned report from the mid-1960s within a minute, he began to worry just a little. Surely Jack wouldn't … replace him?

The Rift alarm sounded. Small incursion, Roath. Possibly three aliens from the size of the spike.

"Good job," Ianto said to Lois quickly. "And now for the field training."

"Negative," said Jack. "You two, stay here and coordinate. I don't want Lois in the field unless necessary. She's here for general support." He tossed a scanner to Dave. "This will give us the exact location while we're out there. Your job is to look for any alien tech that comes through, plus keep us on the baddies once we're on site. You and Alex should stay in the car. Neither of you are field-trained yet but I want you nearby in case of trouble."

"I'm going too?" Alex asked.

Jack ignored him, leaving him to scramble behind as jackets and weapons were grabbed. "Johnson, Gwen says you're almost as good a shot as she is. Let's check that out."

And they were off.

The funny thing about the Rift software was that it wasn't fine-tuned as much as they wanted, not from here. So, while they could tell the approximate mass that came through, they couldn't tell if this came from a dozen pint-sized aliens, or one overlarge monster. Today, it was the latter, and it was angry.

Ianto busied himself with walking Lois through traffic reroutes and directing emergency services to secure the location. Comm traffic was sparse, but it would be. They had five people on the scene, a full complement for the first time in months. Ianto and Lois listened in as Jack called orders, mostly to Gwen and Johnson. Dave stayed in the car, monitoring the Rift activity and updating the rest. Alex was quiet, until there was a scuffle, and Johnson was thrown into a wall.

Ianto held this breath, listening as Alex went to her side while Gwen covered them.

"All right," said Jack. "Dave. Out here. Stay behind me."

The line went quiet. Lois turned to him, worry all over her face.

"You're going to have to get used to this," Ianto said. "If you're the one stuck back here, you won't know what's going on, not enough."

"Your old job?"

"Yeah."

"When did they start sending you into the field?"

"Oh," he said, suddenly certain that telling Lois about their adventures amongst the cannibals in the Beacons was not the best story for her first day. "It took a while. I did most of my initial field training with Gwen while Jack was on extended personal leave."

"I don't think I'll be here long enough for that, then. I'm only a temp." She gave a half-hearted smile.

"You're not 'only' anything. If they picked you for Torchwood, you've got to be pretty special, all of you." Her smile grew at his words. "Anyway, we need new people. Keep doing as well as you are, and Jack will probably hire you on just to keep me on my toes."

Lois laughed, and the comm started to life.

Gwen said, "We're coming back. The Cordedite is too big to remove from the site. Ianto, can you show Lois where the incendiaries are? Jack and I will come back out as soon as he's revived and dispose of it here. I'm leaving Johnson to guard the Cordedite's body." She sounded so tired.

He pushed away the fear he always felt when Jack died, however temporarily. "Right on it."

"Thanks." There was a long pause. "Then help her bring a gurney to the car park. We'll be there soon."

"For Jack?"

"For Dave. It killed them both."

"God," Lois said, covering her mouth. Ianto closed his eyes. If he'd been on the scene, if he'd ducked yesterday instead of rolled, if …

"Understood," he said, and closed the line.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

* * *

Mum knocked once before coming into his room. Steven froze. The alien had just climbed into the wardrobe to get some toys, and he tried to wave his hands for it to stay there.

"Hello, love," she said. "You've been playing up here since I got home. Shouldn't you be outside enjoying the last of the summer?"

He shrugged. "Don't feel like it."

She came over and sat on his bed, now in full view of the wardrobe, its door still ajar. She patted the place beside her, and Steven sat down. Mum took his hand and squeezed.

"How are you doing, Steven?"

"'m fine."

"I know you miss Bobby."

"Yeah."

"But you're starting school again in a few days. Lots of other kids there, plenty of new mates."

His breath caught. Bobby had been Steven's best friend for over four years. When Mum and Dad had started to fight every day, it had been Bobby's house where he'd gone to play. He'd slept over and done his homework there, and when things had been really bad, he'd pretended that Bobby's parents were actually his. Then Dad had gone, and Mum had cried a lot, and then Bobby was gone too.

As if reading his mind, she said, "I know you miss him, and your Dad. And it's not been easy, with me at the new job. But things are going to get better. You know that, right?"

"I know."

Mum gave his hand another squeeze. "What would you think about going out for some ice cream?"

"That'd be fantastic!"

Steven hopped up from the bed, and Mum stood. "Best bring your jacket. It's going to be chilly this evening." And before he could stop her, she opened his wardrobe, took his jacket off the hook, and gave it to him. The alien sat there among his old soft toys, bug-eyed and perfectly still between Elmo and Dipsy. Mum didn't spare it a glance.

"Let's go."

Steven risked a glance back over his shoulder, but the alien didn't move or blink. Whew.

* * *

By the time Gwen and Jack made it back to the Hub with the stink of burned carcass in her hair and that familiar deadened look in his eyes, the others had left for the day, even Ianto. His careful notes, no doubt typed by Lois, let them know Dave's body was temporarily in the morgue and that the Home Office had been contacted. The plan was to release the body to UNIT, and then his family, in the morning after Alex had done a final cleanup. Dave hadn't even signed all the papers necessary for employment at Torchwood yet.

She wrote up a quick report, just the basic facts input into the fields. The new template Ianto had concocted two months ago had saved them a lot of sorely-needed time whilst they'd run from mission to mission without a break, and she found that the sterile facts helps her detach. Alien species, technology acquired, civilians involved, injuries, deaths. She typed in data, letting the software write the sentences: "Torchwood employee $name gave $genderpossessive life in the line of duty." When Ianto had first shown her the template, they'd spent a moment not speaking, both wondering which would fill in these fields for the other, or if Jack would write it up for them both.

Gwen saved the report, and went to tell Jack good night before she headed home for a shower and a cuddle.

"Jack?"

He didn't answer. She tapped on his office door, mindful of the fact that Ianto might not have gone home after all, but Jack was sitting alone at his desk, looking off into his own personal hell again.

"There was nothing we could have done," she said as gently as she could.

"I didn't need to take three complete neophytes into the field today. He shouldn't have been anywhere near that thing."

Sometimes Jack needed his hand held. Sometimes he needed his arse kicked. When Gwen had been in charge of the team, the hardest part was knowing which action she needed to do at any given time. She usually picked the one she thought Jack himself would do. "So learn from your mistake and don't make it again."

"Most people don't get to make mistakes that cost other people's lives."

"No, but there's not a one of us who hasn't." She sighed, not wanting to revisit her own list tonight. "Is this a new record, then? For time spent with Torchwood?"

"There was a woman we hired in 1927 who lived exactly thirty-two minutes after she signed her employment papers." But that was Torchwood, wasn't it? No-one lived long, except Jack.

"What did you say to the others?" She'd gone to the loo to have a quick cry and missed the talk.

"That this is what it's always going to be like. We don't do pensions. I told them anyone who wants to walk out now doesn't need to show up in the morning."

She flashed on a memory from a few months after she'd joined, the day after she'd nearly had her brain sawed open by a Cyberman conversion unit. The three of them had come in to work, quiet as mice and terrified to ask what had happened after Jack had ordered them to leave. Tosh said Retcon, Owen said bullet. Gwen couldn't imagine either one superimposed over the images of the polite, quiet youth in the background who'd swept up, and the sobbing, devastated man covered in blood whom they'd left alone last night with their hard-hearted boss.

"Suspension," Jack had said, when Gwen had finally been the one to ask. "Four weeks, starting today. At the end of it, he can choose to come back or leave permanently."

Owen had sworn, roundly and richly. "So, he almost destroyed the fucking world, and you're giving him a holiday?"

"Show of hands," Jack had said. "Who wants their food delivered by the vengeful suicide risk? Don't everyone volunteer at once. I think four weeks is enough of a cool-off period. For everyone."

Owen scowled. "He's a security threat. I vote he's out."

Jack's eyes had flickered, and Gwen had thought they went to Toshiko for some reason. He'd said, "Don't confuse this for a democracy. If you don't like how I run things here, you know where the door is." Somewhere between standard procedure and mercy, there was Jack.

In the now, she said, "They'll all be here tomorrow."

"We'll see."

"I'm going home."

"Yeah." And not to her complete surprise, he stood and took his coat. "Me too."

Now would be a perfect opportunity to tease him a bit, as they walked out together into the evening air, point out he'd just used the word "home" to mean someplace other than the Hub. She might even mock him for not having filed a change of address form yet, as he'd clearly been living elsewhere since the incident with the planets in the sky, and that was months ago. Instead, she pressed a kiss to his cheek before getting into her own car.

"See you tomorrow."

"Good night, Gwen." As she watched in her mirror, Jack got into his own car and headed towards home.

* * *

Johnson closed her laptop when she heard the knock. She felt for her sidearm, then said, "Who is it?"

"It's just me," said a voice she couldn't immediately place. Oh yes. The secretary. Lois. "I've got pizza."

Johnson blinked. She crossed the sumptuous room and unlocked the door. Sure enough, the abnormally perky PA the Home Office had sent was standing there with a pizza box and a winsome smile.

"Come in," Johnson said, flummoxed.

"I just thought, since we didn't have any dinner … " She trailed off.

"You should ask Dr. Lin."

"I did. He's on the phone with his wife. Said he'd be a while."

Johnson frowned. Obviously the man could pass a background check, but she would have to make sure the wife was monitored closely in case of security leaks. Bloody Torchwood.

"It's veggie," Lois said, setting the box down on the suite's one table. "Only I didn't know what either of you liked, and I didn't want to get something we couldn't share." Without prompting, she went to the desk and pulled out paper from the complimentary notepad, then set two pieces of pizza on each page. It blotted the grease reasonably well.

Johnson sat at the table and pulled over a slice. "Thank you," she said belatedly.

"It's no trouble at all. Room service is nice, but sometimes pizza is a bit more comforting." Lois twisted her fingers in her lap. Oh.

"Yes," Johnson said, and bit into her food so she wouldn't have to make conversation.

"You're Special Ops, then?"

"I'd rather not say."

"You did say. Back at the Tourist Centre." She broke off with another nervous smile. "Ianto says I'm probably going to be running it for a while. It's a bit tatty, and he says he sometimes sends the tourists to the wrong places, but I think he was just having me on."

Johnson had read Jones's file. Lying was entirely possible. Rather than responding, she took another bite.

"So, have you seen a lot of dead bodies, then?"

Johnson chewed slowly, considering her answer. "A number." Had caused a large percentage of them, but it was no use frightening the woman.

"Any as bad as this? He was so … " Lois's eyes went big for a moment in memory. "Flat."

Johnson nodded, and suddenly she was less enamoured of the pizza. "A few."

"And Jack was dead too, Gwen said? But he was fine when they got back. Not Dave, though."

Harkness's file was complicated. No official records, but plenty of unofficial ones if one knew how to dig. Aliases. Certain expenditures. Johnson had spent the past ten months constructing a skeleton of an image around the man and slowly trying to infiltrate his organisation, per orders. Oddly, the original orders were issued by the previous PM, that barking mad Saxon fellow, and no-one had countermanded them, not even after the first person given this assignment had turned up dead. It wasn't Johnson's place to ask why.

"Captain Harkness is resilient. He's special."

Lois gave a short little laugh. "Ianto said we all must be special for the Home Office to have handed us this assignment. But I think he meant we were expendable."

Johnson was certain Jones hadn't meant that. But as she watched the other woman nibble at her pizza, she knew that in Lois's case, it was true as far as Johnson was concerned. She had a mission to complete.

* * *

As soon as Mum left for work, Steven dug out all the clothes that he could find that might fit the alien. There were old things Dad had left when he'd shouted and thrown stuff into his suitcase, and Mum had shouted back and thrown more stuff after him. He'd come back later, with less shouting, and cleared out most of his belongings. But he'd left some shirts and some trousers and coats.

Steven had other clothes, bigger things Mum had been given by her mate Claire whose son outgrew them last year. Mum said Steven could wear them when he was a bit bigger, although he wasn't looking forward to the garish striped shirts.

He made a big pile on his floor and started holding shirts and trousers up against the alien, who only stared at him with its great big eyes.

"Here, try this." One of Dad's shirts had sleeves long enough to hide the alien's gangly arms, but there was no way trousers were going to fit over that big belly and stubby legs. Steven stood a moment, thinking, then grinned.

Mum wouldn't miss the dress much.

* * *

The child took zir into the woods, where zie then led the way back to the site. Footprints were everywhere, but the child moved past them without noticing.

"This where you landed?"

"Yes."

Zie went to work on the machine, coaxing power connexions into the yews, humming idly as zie did. This was a crude system, and zie offered apologies to the trees even as zie set up the last of the wires. As the sap moved and the wind blew, the machine would be powered; any ripples in the Rift would carry zir message back through: please come back.

"That's it?" Steven asked, as zie stood up.

"Yes." Anyone looking upon the scene would see broken electronics littered under a tree. Only one versed in the ways of interdimensional communication would ever know otherwise. Zie found it strange that the mammals of this planet only saw what they intended to see. The adult saw zir and saw a toy. Other children they'd passed on the throughways had taken one look at them, teased Steven about "fancy dress" -- he wore clothing he said were those of a cow boy although he looked nothing like a four-footed mammal -- and ignored them as they took Steven's two-wheeled vehicle out and away from the settlement.

The machine in place, zie found zie wanted to linger. Perhaps they would strike lucky, and the Rift would open, and the message would display, and zir people would come right now.

Or perhaps they would sit in this clearing, and Steven would offer zir apple slices and egg and cress while they sipped something fizzy and sweet from a glass bottle, and nothing would happen at all before they packed up to go back to the house.

* * *

Everyone arrived at the Hub more or less on time, except for Ianto. Jack didn't look concerned, and Gwen supposed he'd ordered the poor dear to stay home. She helped Johnson and Lois through the last of the employment paperwork while Jack watched Alex finish the prep on Dave's body before the UNIT escort arrived to transport him back to London.

Gwen took it upon herself to meet the UNIT team in the underground car park. Jack and Alex brought the gurney up.

"Not much of a secret entrance," said the woman in uniform, who handed Gwen a clipboard to sign. Gwen chose not to reply.

"Here's the autopsy report," Alex said. "Nothing complex. He was crushed to death by a Cordedite."

"On his first day?"

Jack said, "Nobody has a good first day on this job." Gwen had thought he might try charming the UNIT woman, but Jack didn't seem in a charming mood today, not standing beside the body bag of someone who'd yesterday taken his orders.

"Try not to break the others too soon, Captain. The Home Office only has a limited number of resources to send your way."

"I'll keep it in mind."

The UNIT guards loaded Dave's body into the back of their vehicle. Gwen made herself stay to watch until they pulled out. Jack had already disappeared. She went to find him, reasoning that if he'd gone to brood on a rooftop, she wouldn't follow, but if he was just dicking around somewhere in the Hub, she could try to pull him out of his funk.

She was surprised, then, to find him up at the Tourist Office, showing Lois the ropes with a flirty grin on his face. Jack Harkness: King of Compartmentalising.

"Now, I'm not sure what this thing does," said Jack. "It's either a Sycogoran immobilisation ray, or an especially ugly tchotchke from Barry Island."

Gwen took it from him. "Tchotchke."

"Thanks."

Lois set the hideous thing back on the shelf, where it sat in decrepit beauty.

Gwen said, "You should have Ianto show her around this. He knows where he's put everything."

"He will, but I wanted to show Lois the basics so she can sit here today."

There was a beeping noise. Three heads turned to see the tiny alert window pop up at the bottom of Ianto's monitor. To anyone who didn't know, it would look like an instant message. "Rift activity," Jack said, fastest at reading the small text.

Gwen watched the worry cross Lois's face as Jack pulled up the details of the activity.

"Huh. Another surge at the Bristol site. Nothing came through."

Gwen said, "Are you sure?"

Jack clicked a few more keys. "If Tosh's program says nothing came through, I'm going to believe it."

Gwen nodded in agreement. "Seems odd, though."

Lois asked, "The Rift extends all the way out to Bristol?"

"No," said Jack. "Not normally. We had an incursion there a few days ago. Could just be a residual from that." He didn't look convinced, Gwen thought, like he was saying it to put Lois at ease.

Jack placed a hand to his ear. "Yes, Johnson, we saw it up here. I don't think it's a problem. Down in a minute." He glanced at Lois. "Think you can handle the tourists while you sort out the reports?"

"Yes, sir."

Jack and Gwen left her to it, as Lois was already a natural at the filing system. After the lift doors closed, Jack said, "Between you and me, I'm not sure how long it's going to take Ianto to forgive me if she takes over his job completely."

"He'll get over it," she said with a smile. "So how did you convince him to stay home today?"

"Theft."

"What?"

"I took his car keys, his wallet, and just to be certain, every pair of trousers in the flat that he could put on one-handed. I also let him know that if he still finds a way to come in, tomorrow I'm tying him down."

Gwen blinked, and then blinked harder, trying to rid her brain of the image of her friend in just his underpants, swearing at Jack in absentia.

In the Hub proper, Gwen listened as Jack went over the events from earlier in the week with Johnson and Alex. Yes, they'd made contact. Yes, the aliens had gone back through before anything had happened. No, they hadn't yet identified them as any previously-encountered species. Yes, Jack had personally inspected the site again later, no, there wasn't anything else they were going to do just now.

"Any more questions?" His patience, never one of Jack's strongest virtues, appeared to be nearing its end.

Johnson said, "If you're still getting readings from the site, why aren't you checking it again? If the aliens can manipulate the Rift themselves, they could be planning to come back."

"It's just an echo," said Gwen. "Sometimes the Rift will throw up an aftershock. That's all."

"Permission to take a team and physically inspect the site."

"Denied," said Jack. "We need you here for now." As if waiting for the signal, the Rift alarm sounded again. Jack glanced over. "Off to Penarth, kids."

"No-one get killed this time," Johnson said under her breath, but loud enough nonetheless for all to hear. Gwen didn't need to see Jack's face to read the flinch.

* * *

Lois had asked Gwen about weekends before leaving Friday night at ten, and had been met with an indulgent smile and a comment about weekends happening to other people. Lois had been fairly certain, but she'd wanted to confirm. Saturday morning began better than Friday, but any day that started without releasing the body of a colleague for burial was going to be better, for all that she'd barely known him. The Home Office said they would send out another technology expert next week; they were among those who did have weekends.

As Lois settled her handbag in the little room behind the horrid beaded curtain, the front door opened, and she hurried out, pasting a smile on her face for the early tourists.

"Oh! Hello, Captain. Ianto."

"Good morning," Ianto said pleasantly. He was dressed professionally today, though his shirt sleeves were rolled up to accommodate the cast. Someone had made a little drawing up near the elbow, which she couldn't make out.

"We brought breakfast," Jack said, holding up a sack filled with something that smelled bacony and fried. "Staff meeting in five minutes."

"Good morning, Lois," Ianto said, in a louder voice.

"Good morning, Lois," Jack repeated, though he glared at Ianto with a clear "What?"

"I'll be there," she said, and she watched them exit together through the secret door. Jack must have picked him up on his way to work, since Ianto couldn't drive. Nice of him.

Lois spent a minute tidying the small office: quick brush of the duster, glance over the fliers and brochures, check her email for anything important before locking the station. Then she went downstairs.

Even as she reached the boardroom, there was an argument in full swing. Instinctively, Lois stayed to the back of the room, slipping to the side.

"Another two encounters last night," Johnson was saying, as Lois helped Ianto get the coffee for everyone. Lois met his eyes and saw the same "parents are fighting, keep your head down" expression she knew she wore. Alex looked like he was trying to disappear into his own chair.

Jack said, "That's an easy night for us. The last few months, we've been out four and five times a night."

Gwen nodded, tucking into a bacon sandwich. They'd all been there late, but Gwen had mentioned to Lois that ten was actually not so bad.

"That's what I mean. You've got half a dozen alien, Weevil, and worse sightings every day. The Rift is going haywire. You have a site, further out than normal, that's been intentionally breached and could be again, and it's become active." Up on the screen the blips from Bristol in the last twenty four hours flashed ominously.

"Yeah, and that's why we brought the rest of you on."

"We're not enough." Johnson took the coffee from Lois and took a long, contemplative drink. "As long as I'm assigned with you, I'll gladly go out every single day and fight these bastards. But we're treating a gushing wound with a Mickey Mouse plaster. The Rift is dangerous."

"I've lived on top of it since it opened," Jack said. "I know it's dangerous." Lois filed away that statement for perusal later.

"Then why are you dashing to and fro cleaning up its messes? Why aren't you closing the godforsaken thing once and for all?"

"We can't," Jack said after a long time. "Something happened, something big, and it ripped it open."

"UNIT has some of the finest scientific minds in the world. Let them work on the problem."

"No-one's stopping them."

"You are. You've refused to let UNIT come to the base to look at your equipment."

"And that still stands. They can work on the problem at home. They're not coming in."

"You are intentionally slowing the process, then. Why?"

"My organisation, my rules. No UNIT."

The signal from Bristol beeped again, putting another spike on the screen. They all turned to look.

"There's a signal," Gwen said. Lois had no idea how she knew. Her own learning curve on this technology wasn't fast enough.

"On it." Ianto stopped halfway out the door.

Lois said, "Give you a hand, yeah?"

"Thanks."

He showed her how to run the isolation and translation program Dr. Sato had written, latching onto the least of signals and boosting it enough to try and decipher any messages.

"On our slow days, when we had them, Tosh used to run all sorts of signals through the program to see if she could make sense of them. Not just electronics, but patterns in the flap of wings of the seagulls on the Bay, insect noises." So much fondness in his voice, she noted. "Always looking for order in the chaos. I think she thought that if she just got a bit more information, she'd finally make sense of everything."

"She sounds like she was an amazing woman."

"She was." His gaze clouded, and then he put on a false smile. "Now, _this_ algorithm was really clever."

The Rift alert sounded. Lois wondered how long it would take her not to hear it as a death knell.

* * *

The adult called from below them. "Steven? Are you all right?"

"Fine, Mum."

"I was thinking. It's Saturday. Maybe we could go to the park for a while."

"No thanks, Mum. I'm playing."

There was a noise on the stairs. Zie held still as Steven threw a blanket over zir head right before the door opened.

"What have you been doing up here?"

"Just playing."

From through the fine material of the blanket, zie saw the adult look around. "You've made a terrible mess." It picked up some of the discarded clothing. "Steven, are these your dad's?"

Steven took the clothing from its parent. "Yeah. I was just … playing."

The adult's eyes went strange, and then it pulled Steven into its arms, with water leaking slowly along its face. How puzzling.

* * *

Near misses were better than the alternative, if "near miss" could be defined as "the only person who died was the one who could get up from it later," that was. Alex, bless, tried to treat Jack anyway while he was a corpse. Gwen took charge, ordering Johnson around to distract the alien until Jack recovered and could come at it with a surprise attack. Lois learned fast how to tell the differences among the various flutters of the Rift, and learned faster to stay in the damn car while the operatives with weapons training went after the current threat. Ianto monitored them all from back at the Hub, coordinating and reorganising and dropping false lead after false lead to the press as fast as he could manage with one good hand.

And on. And on.

* * *

They didn't bother going home, not at two in the morning when the last mess was swept up and even Gwen had staggered back to Rhys. Climbing down into the bunker wasn't too difficult, but his own buttons were beyond him and he had to stand there as Jack worked them. Normally, this would have been done much faster, with more than a few popping off as they tried to get naked as quickly as possible, but Jack was tired and Ianto was tired, and so Jack's hands were careful, thoughtful.

It was uncomfortable settling into the camp bed, something they'd managed on other late nights. Legs tangled and arms wrapped, and soon, Ianto was nestled against Jack's shoulder.

"You okay?" Jack asked into his hair.

"Yep."

"Take your meds?"

"The good ones. About ten minutes ago. Give me another twenty minutes, and I won't feel a thing." He'd put himself on the lower dose ones during the day. Everything was sore, and it hurt worse whenever he managed to jostle the break, but his mind stayed sharp. "How about you?"

"No meds, not even the good ones."

"I mean, are you okay? You died a couple times today."

"Not even close to my record."

"But it still hurts when you do."

"Yeah."

And that was it. If there was only one thing Ianto could have given to Jack, it would be a way to take away the pain of dying, of watching other people die, all of the large and small aches that made up Jack's life. Not that Jack would take the release. He wasn't a masochist, not for more than about an hour or two at a stretch anyway, but Jack took each death, each wound, like it was punishment for his past sins, like if he died enough, lost enough, hurt enough, he'd earn some kind of grace in trade. Had Ianto the words and no fears about stumbling over them and looking even more asinine, he'd have told Jack that he couldn't buy forgiveness, not this way, certainly not the forgiveness Jack was seeking, which was Jack's own. He'd also say plenty of things about how Jack was already a good man, that Ianto knew it even if Jack didn't always believe it himself. He'd mess it up, though, and Jack wouldn't understand, would get that obnoxious "Wow, you're young!" look on his face, and so Ianto didn't say anything.

Instead, he leaned in for a kiss, and then another. Jack's hands moved up to his face, stroking his jaw, and this was easier than words had ever been for them.

What the hell. They had twenty minutes.

* * *

The translation program gave them nothing: unknown language, unknown species. It continued working on the problem, humming along in the background, but kept its own council and revealed no mysteries.

The signal repeated twice while they sorted out some Weevils in Grangetown. Jack met Johnson's eyes.

"Fine," he said. "I'll go back to the site."

"I'll go with you."

"No. You'll stay here in case we get another alert."

He took the SUV this time, in case this really was something important, but Jack didn't want any of the others involved. Had Ianto been better, maybe, but until he was healed -- today's X-ray said the bones were no longer aligned correctly -- Jack was absolutely not bringing him into the field, and anyway, he liked the excuse to drop in on Alice, and for that he had to be alone. For now.

Alice wasn't part of his life at Torchwood, by her own choice as well as by necessity. Jack had wanted to spend more time with her and Steven ever since Gray, and the bombs, and the long dark time underground, and everything else. His memories were patchy, and being around the two of them helped. However, with the loss of their two friends, and the sharp rise in the workload, finding time to slip away had been difficult, especially with Ianto and Gwen there night and day. Telling them both put Alice's secret identity in jeopardy, and just telling one would end up as telling them both because secrets were things the three of them had stopped being able to keep from one another. Which was probably just another sign of how unhealthy this situation had become, and why they so desperately needed the new people.

Of course, they had the new people now.

As he pulled off into the woods, Jack wondered how Alice would react if he did bring Ianto 'round one day, to the house or to a neutral place somewhere else. Would she be angry with him for revealing her identity to someone she saw as just another number on Jack's admittedly long list of shags? Would she accept Ianto as an important person in her father's life, someone he did in fact trust with his secrets? Or would she get that same look that her mother always did, the one that wished Jack would finally forget her entirely so she could live her life?

He got out, trying to focus on the job at hand. The clearing wasn't far. When he found it, he stared.

* * *

Steven had a fever Sunday morning. Alice fussed over him, obscurely grateful that this was a day she could stay home with him. She propped him up with pillows on the sofa, watched some of his favourite movies with him, fed him soup, and let him rest. Her mum had always been good at comforting, she recalled.

Of course, that meant the knock on her door just before supper would be her other parent.

"In town for work again?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Jack's face was set in a smile, so he was hiding something. "Can I come in?"

"Fine."

"Hi, Uncle Jack," said the croaky voice from the sofa.

"He's got a fever," Alice said, as Jack perched on the arm of the couch exactly the way she kept telling Steven not to do.

"Not feeling well?"

"'m fine. You staying for supper?"

He glanced at Alice, who said, "It's soup."

"I like soup."

Cursing him mentally, she said, "Then you should stay."

"I'd love to." He got up from the sofa, ruffled Steven's hair, and then pulled out his mobile, walking back towards the door as he dialled.

"It's me. I'm still in Bristol." A pause. "Unless there's an alert … Sorry! I'll be here awhile longer." Another pause. "Yeah, there was something. Don't tell Johnson until I get back. I'll handle it. Thanks. Oh, I'm grabbing a bite here, so don't wait on me for supper. Okay." He looked like he wanted to say something else, and then he said, "Bye."

"Now you have to tell them you're eating somewhere else?"

"That wasn't work. Well, it was, but. Anyway, you said soup?"

Alice got the bowls ready while Jack washed up then grabbed Steven around the middle to excited giggles, throwing him over his shoulder on their way to the table. As they ate, he carefully edited his stories to where Steven wouldn't be upset or frightened or confused. No aliens, no sex. Nice change, really, as he'd been a much worse self-censor when she'd been a child.

"So I was thinking," Jack said, as he slurped the last noodles from the bowl. "Maybe you two should take a holiday. You could go visit your Aunt Gia."

"We saw her in July," Alice said. "Also, school starts tomorrow, and I have a job."

"School will still be there when you get back."

He reached out to play with Steven's hair again, and Alice's eyes narrowed. "What's going on?"

"Nothing."

"Steven, can you go play in your room for a while?"

"Sure, Mum. Can I take some apples up with me?"

He was going through fruit like there was no tomorrow lately. "Sure."

As soon as she heard his door shut, she said, "Now. Tell me what's going on."

"We're still getting Rift signatures from near here. This afternoon, I found what could be a transmitter at the site."

"Something else came through."

"No. Something on this side is trying to send a signal."

"Christ. What's the signal say?"

"No clue. We haven't seen this species before, and the translator can't crack it yet. So yeah, I'd feel a lot better if the two of you were elsewhere for a while, and not sitting at what could be Ground Zero for the next invasion."

"Why are you here?"

"What?" Confusion wasn't his best look.

"You're in my dining room eating when there could be an invasion force about to come through."

"We don't know that. They don't necessarily have to be a threat."

"When have aliens been helpful, Dad?" She tried not to raise her voice, not let Steven hear. "What have you been doing for the last century if not fighting off menace after menace?"

"The Doctor isn't a menace."

"If he's the only one who's not, we're in terrible trouble. Why haven't you sent the army out there?"

He let out a sigh. "That's not a reasonable action. Not now. Not yet."

"But you want us to drop everything and leave, just in case? It's either dangerous or it's not."

He went to say something, and then his ear beeped. He held up a hand to her and pressed it. "Go ahead." A minute later, he said, "I have to go."

"Do we?"

"Just … If you see anything unusual, call me, all right? Keep a close eye on Steven, and don't let him go play in the woods."

"Done. He's barely left his room in days. I've had to pry him out of there repeatedly."

"Okay." He kissed her on the head the way she hated. "Mind if I drop by again while this is still going on?"

"That's fine."

"And if I happened to bring company when I did?"

"I'd say you'd lost your mind."

He covered with a smile, and it was only because she'd known him so long that she could even tell it was a cover. "You'd probably be right."

* * *

"What's this?"

Johnson examined the ruins of the electronics in the middle of the boardroom table then stared at him expectantly.

"I found it at the site."

"You said you didn't find anything there last time."

"It wasn't there last time."

Lois ran the scanner over the equipment. "If I'm reading this right, there's no Rift energy on it."

"You're reading it right," said Jack. "This stuff came from our side of the Rift." He'd tested it several times already.

Johnson said, "So someone from Earth is trying to send a signal through the Rift at the site of a previous incursion."

"Something like that," said Jack.

"Human or alien?" asked Alex, staring at the transmitter.

"Could be either." Jack shared a look with Ianto. "It was dark when we found them. It's possible we missed one."

Johnson said, "Why didn't you check for energy traces?"

"It was flooded with Rift energy at the time," Ianto said. "It's like looking for an infrared signal in the middle of a burning building."

Gwen said, "We should go look now."

"I did," Jack said. "There were some traces of Rift energy. They led towards the city, but they were too weak to follow." And his first impulse had been to go to Alice, to get her and Steven out of harm's way just in case.

"We've got better equipment here," said Gwen. "We can go in for a sweep, find out exactly where this thing has crawled off to, and take care of it before its friends come back."

Jack nodded. "But not tonight. We missed this guy once in the dark. First thing tomorrow, we're loading up. Full team, all weapons." He turned to Ianto. "I want a rumour going out ASAP about an escaped animal from the zoo."

Ianto said, "It was a panther. Mauled two zookeepers, very tragic."

* * *

Johnson waited until even Harkness was definitely gone for the night; the tracker she'd placed on his vehicle told her it was parked outside Jones's building. Then she loaded up the SUV, making careful note of where Harkness had taken it earlier, and went to look for the alien on her own.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

* * *

Steven's temperature was back to normal, though he still looked wan. She didn't want him to miss the first day of school, and that made the final decision. "Come on, then. Get your uniform on, I'll drive you. If you start feeling bad, go to the nurse and have her call me."

"Okay." She watched him go upstairs, heard him talking to himself. Yes, this was definitely a good idea. He'd spent so much of this summer alone, it was time he made new friends.

As they got into the car, she noticed one of those ostentatious SUVs driving by and shook her head.

* * *

The second the cog door opened, Jack roared, "Where have you been?"

"I went to the site," Johnson said, with a polite calmness. "I've got readings, and I've discovered the approximate location of the alien. You're welcome."

"You stole the car, and went over my express orders. I'm not thanking you."

"I didn't suppose you would." She pulled out her gun. "Captain, I am relieving you of command."

He folded his arms. "You're really not."

"I really am. Remove your sidearm and kick it over here." She looked at the rest of them, keeping her gun trained on Jack. "He's been helping the aliens with the invasion. I have proof."

What? "This is ridiculous."

"It's not."

"I'm not helping the aliens, Johnson."

"The Rift has been growing in activity, both frequency and strength, since the actions of your brother and former partner, destabilising it to the point where other species can come through at will."

Jack kept the hurt off his face. He'd noticed the timing, yeah. "I won't say that's not my fault, but it wasn't intentional. They did it to get at me. It worked." And it had cost him dear.

"Then explain what you've been doing over the past week at the alien's hideout."

"What hideout?"

"I traced the residual Rift energy, and obviously so did you. You went straight to the end of the trail."

"No, I didn't." Out of the corner of his eye, he'd watched as Gwen slowly positioned herself behind Johnson. She wasn't armed, not in the Hub, but that didn't mean she was defenceless. He kept talking. "I searched for traces. I couldn't find any with the scanner I had."

"I did. Mrs. Cooper, if you so much as move another muscle, I'm going to shoot." Gwen froze.

Jack said, "Shooting me isn't going to do you any good, and we both know it."

"I didn't say you were the one I was going to shoot." Her gun moved a tiny fraction, and Jack was suddenly very aware of Ianto behind him but off to the side just enough. Jack could probably get in front of the bullet in time, but if he missed …

Too many deaths.

"What do you want, Johnson?"

"I want your sidearm. I want you to sit quietly in a cell while we wait for UNIT reinforcements to arrive. I'm going to meet them at the site, and then we'll see what you've done."

Jack reached down for his Webley, turning his head to the side as he did to meet Ianto's eyes, trying to send him a message.

Johnson said, "Please do not encourage Mr. Jones to run. I assure you, I can hit a moving target. Mrs. Cooper, please join the two of them. Now."

Jack kicked his gun over to her as Gwen complied. Johnson stepped on it, and there went his hope of a distraction.

The cog wheel turned again as Lois and Alex came down from the Tourist Centre.

Alex said, "What's going on?" as Lois pulled back, terrified.

"I've just relieved Captain Harkness of command for collaborating with the invaders. You need to choose a side or I'll choose for you."

"He'd never do that," said Lois, and Johnson put on a disgusted face.

"That's her decided, then. Doctor?"

Alex wet his lips. "I want more information."

"Fine. Go to your station, pull up the records from the SUV." Alex hurried over and logged in as they watched. His face fell as he read.

"All right," he said. "I'm with you."

"Take Ms. Habiba into custody."

Regretfully, Alex took Lois's arm. "You can't possibly believe her," said Lois.

"I do."

Johnson said, "Into the cells."

As they walked, Jack noted that Johnson was happy to point the gun at the other three to keep him in check. "Alex, tell me what she's got. I know I'm not a collaborator, but I can't defend myself if I don't even know what she's told you."

"The satnav records have you located at the same address where the Rift energy signature ends. Langham House 27."

Jack stopped dead. "No. That's not possible. Not that house."

Johnson said, "After I came back the first time, I pulled up the CCTV records for the location over the past several weeks. You've been there a number of times, I can only assume getting prepared for the aliens. I went back this morning to reconnoitre the house."

"There are no aliens at that address. I can guarantee it." Alice had been brought up to shoot on sight.

Johnson indicated the cells, ignoring Janet's cries for attention from her keepers. "All in the same cell. Go."

The cell door closed behind them. Jack went to the window, heart hammering. "Johnson, if an alien _has_infiltrated that house, the people who live there are in danger. You've got to get them out of there. Please!"

"Wait here," she said, as if he could do anything else. He closed his eyes.

* * *

Zie waited until Steven and the parent were gone, then climbed down the stairs. Something had gone wrong with the signal, and zie feared all was lost. Zie could not make it back to the site alone, and cannibalising another computer would only draw attention.

The only thing stronger now than despair was hunger. Zie found the delightful fruit in the cold box, and ate standing in the cool blast of air. At the bottom of the cold box, there were more of the glass bottles that zie recalled from the picnic. Zie enjoyed fizzy and sweet, and so removed four of the bottles to bring to the sofa. At first taste, the liquid was much less sweet than zie remembered, but after a few gulps, zie didn't mind.

* * *

Steven hadn't felt good since Saturday, not really. When he got dizzy, he felt his own forehead, but the fever didn't seem to be back. He placed his head on his desk.

"Steven Carter," said the teacher. "We do not take naps at school."

"Yes, miss. Sorry, miss." He held his head up again, trying to make sense of the words on the blackboard, but the chalk letters swum in his vision, trying to form an alphabet he didn't recognise for words he somehow understood.

Steven belched.

* * *

She'd half-expected the call, considering, but she hadn't anticipated her boss to be the one to hand her the phone. "Apparently," he said, voice caught between amusement and disapproval, "the nurse thinks your son is rat-arsed."

Alice sighed. "I'll be needing the rest of the day off."

"Yes. I think you will."

* * *

Gwen looked at him. "What's going on? Why does she think you were helping them?"

"I don't know. I really don't. There's got to be a mistake somewhere."

Ianto said, "You've been in Bristol a lot lately." It wasn't accusatory. "Lois, come here." The two of them went to a panel by the door.

Gwen said, "Jack, what aren't you telling us this time?"

He sighed. "Look, not all of my secrets are my own, okay? There are other people I need to protect."

"There," said Ianto to Lois. "The sequence is: four two three three nine."

"Who are you protecting in Bristol? Is it this alien?"

"No."

"Jack … "

Ianto said, "Jack's got a daughter and grandson there. Alright, twist it to the left."

Jack blinked. "How in the hell did you know that?"

"You're not subtle. I figured you'd tell me when you were ready. And press."

Lois pressed something on the panel, and the door slid open. She smiled proudly.

Jack and Gwen stared. "You just picked the lock?"

"After we got locked in that one time, I installed an override so I wouldn't be trapped in my own cell again."

"You never said," said Jack.

"Well," said Ianto. "I might need to lock you both in here some day, right? Anyway, Lois did the actual work. Thank her."

"Thank you, Lois," they said together.

"It's no problem. I'm getting used to being Ianto's extra pair of hands."

Gwen reached up without even looking and smacked Jack on the back of his head.

"What was that for?"

"Pre-emptive. You were going to need it in a minute."

As they reached the Hub, one of the monitors beeped. Jack loped over to see. "Bless you, Toshiko. The translation program just finished." Of course it had. The algorithm really was clever, redefining even the most unfamiliar of languages into something that could be translated. It just took time.

Jack frowned as he read the display. "Oh. Oh no. We've been going about this all wrong."

* * *

Alice helped Steven into the car. His fever was back with a vengeance, which explained his wooziness and the mad, drunken look. The school counsellor wanted to speak with her, but Alice had put it off to tomorrow, so she could get him home to rest.

Steven sickened as they neared the house. Alice stopped at a light, and debated with herself whether she should take him directly to the doctor. It was probably just a touch of 'flu, something that another day on the sofa with some soup and crackers could patch up. She hoped.

She noticed more cars on the street than were normal for this time of day. Odd. She parked the car, went to help him out.

"We're sick," he said, his face waxen.

"I know, love. We'll get you inside, rest up, all right?"

She unlocked the door, went inside. Steven swayed where he stood in the foyer, and she reconsidered the doctor. She'd take him to get checked out. That swine 'flu was making the news again, but they had shots, right? But the smell …. There was a smell in the house, foul and beery, and she stepped back, gagging. What the hell?

"Stay here," she said, though Steven didn't look like he could move at all.

Alice crept into the kitchen, saw the refrigerator door wide open, and felt fear trickle inside her. Someone had been in her house. Someone had gone through her things. She grabbed the kitchen knife almost on instinct, and then looked into the living room.

There was an alien on the sofa, empty beer bottles around it. It moved its head and looked at her with giant bug eyes.

Fucking Rift.

"Steven, we have to go. Now."

"Mum … " he said from the foyer.

"Mum … " said the alien.

Alice scrambled back, not turning away from it, not letting it get behind her. "Steven. Run. Now."

Her mobile was still in the car. She had to get to the car, get out of here, call Jack. Lock this monster inside.

Steven moaned.

"Steven!"

Finally, she turned. Three armed and uniformed soldiers stood in the doorway. A woman stood with them, all in black, bending down to place her hands on Steven's shoulders.

"Let him go."

"Where's the alien?"

"In there. Did you bring it here? Into my home?"

The woman looked confused. "What?"

* * *

Speeding tickets were the last thing on Jack's mind as he flew through traffic. They could sort that out later. Right now, there was an alien at Alice's house, and he'd missed it. He'd completely fucking missed it.

Lois said from the back, "UNIT frequency says they've just arrived at the house. They've taken a woman into custody, Alice Carter."

"What about Steven?"

"Still working on it," said Ianto.

Beside him, Gwen was on her mobile to the police in the area, letting them know the make and model of Jack's car and asking them to clear the roads. "They're handling it. What's our plan?"

Jack didn't say anything at first. "Logic. We go in and explain what's going on."

The species was old, millions of years old, and practically mythical. Jack had heard of them, of course, but the same way he'd learned of elves and fairies and Time Lords: as stories, nothing more. His mouth quirked. So the elves would be along any time, then.

The Botanists, not their name but their vocation, slipped like ghosts from world to world, collecting samples for preservation in their great topiaries. The stories said that they had plants from every inhabited planet in the universe, tended and loved and allowed to flourish aeons after their homeworlds crumbled to dust or were consumed by supernovae. "Be kind to the little plants," went the tales, "because that dandelion might be the last survivor of the whole world."

And he and Ianto had accidentally interrupted one of their collection missions. For Jack, who'd long ago lost any belief he might have had in gods, it was practically blasphemy.

He heard Ianto's intake of breath, even over the engine. "There's a biohazard warning on the house. The alien is showing serious signs of illness." He paused. "Jack, the reports say there's a child showing the same symptoms."

"That'll be the telepathy. One of the things they say, a Botanist can bond with a member of another species, trading thoughts and experiences. There's a whole story cycle about scientists and heroes and mystics all wanting to be the one chosen, but there's always some twist about it being the ploughboy or the milkmaid or something. Fairy tale stuff."

"Like with Jasmine," said Gwen. "The Chosen One."

His stomach clenched, remembering how that had turned out. "Not. Like. Jasmine." Jack gunned the engine.

"Sir," said Lois. "I don't mean to add to the worry."

"By all means, add."

"But it's just, if Ianto figured out who Alice and Steven are, it's not going to take long for someone else to do it." He saw in the rearview as Lois glanced over the Ianto, as if apologising. "I mean, UNIT and the Home Office, everyone's got files. Even if the records were buried, they'll be there somewhere."

He said nothing, drove even faster.

* * *

Steven felt hot and cold all over. Mum sat beside him, a chair by his fold-up bed, holding his hand and stroking his head, and he was so tired. The army people had set up inside the house and were tracking mud and worse all over the rugs. Poor Mum. She always fumed when Steven made a mess on the floor, and here were muddy boots up and down the stairs, running scans in his room, over his toys, everything. They'd run scans over Mum, too, but they all made lots more beeps when they came near Steven.

He was sick. He wondered if the sick made the computers beep.

He turned his head to see where the alien was. Another fold-up bed was in the dining room, with Mum's table pushed outside. The alien was on the bed, not moving.

Inside his mind, he heard the alien say, _Steven._

"'m here."

"Yes, love," said Mum. "You're here." She was the only one not wearing a mask and plastic suit. Every time someone tried to give her one, she growled.

The alien said to him, _Home. Go home._

"Stay," Steven said.

Mum said, "I'm going to stay, sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere."

* * *

Johnson watched as Dr. Lin fluttered over the alien. "Did it poison itself?"

"With the beer? Could be. I've never seen anything like this before. I hadn't seen an alien up close before this week."

"You're now the resident expert. I want it alive and ready to answer questions. We could be looking at a full-scale invasion at any moment, and this is our only hope. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am. But don't you think we'd be better off with Torchwood here? They're the real experts."

"As I said, I think they've been compromised."

"We haven't," said a voice in her ear. It was accompanied by a cool prick of a gun barrel. "Step away."

"I have thirty guards in and around this building."

"Four," said Jones. "Actually, two now," he amended, as two more of Johnson's men dropped their weapons and grabbed their ears.

"Sonic disruptor," said Cooper, brandishing something distinctly alien. "It's temporary."

From the other room, the mother stood. "I'd expect it of them, you know. But how dare you bring guns into my house." This was to Harkness.

Jones let out a sigh. "Clearly, next time we should attempt to rescue you using walkie-talkies."

Harkness said, "There are a lot of ways this can go right now. Some of them, we all walk away from."

"Or just you," said Johnson.

"Or just me." She couldn't see his infuriating smile from this angle, but she knew it was there.

"You can't be trusted. You've been working with the aliens this whole time."

"No," said Harkness. "But I ought to have been. Ready to stand down?"

Johnson moved, slowly, so she could look into his eyes, not that they told her anything. "Tell me what it is."

"I don't know the name of the species. But it's not harmful. I swear."

She flicked her eyes to the mother. "How good are his promises?"

"They're rubbish," said the woman. "Always were."

"Even she says you're a liar."

"But," the woman added, "he knows what he's talking about. You won't find a better expert, and that's what you need right now."

"To save the alien?"

"I could care bugger all about the alien. But something's wrong with my son, and I'm willing to believe Jack can fix it. Can you?"

Harkness nodded.

Johnson stepped back and away. His people turned off the sonic disruptor.

"Take her," Harkness said, and Cooper grabbed her arm while Habiba covered her. "Alex, what do we have?"

"Sir. The alien's sick. It may have poisoned itself."

Harkness kneeled down beside it. "I'll bet. Hello. I know who you are."

The alien turned its head towards him, but said nothing.

"I always thought you were just a story. Coming to collect the plants from across worlds. Earth is like an enormous dessert bar for you, yeah? It's a little late to say we mean you no harm, but I wanted to say, I'm sorry." He looked completely honest. "I didn't know it was you."

The alien reached out a long arm, paler now than when they'd arrived.

"You need to release the connexion you have with Steven. You're both very ill, and if you die, he'll die too. You know that." Johnson saw the mother's face blanch. "Let him go, and we'll do what we can to save you."

Interesting. The corollary was a threat without ever stating it.

"Go," said the alien. Harkness twitched. Alien expert or not, he obviously hadn't known it could speak.

"Stay," said a small voice from the other side of the room, and even as the mother turned her attention back to him, the child's life signs stabilised.

"Go," said the creature, weaker.

"Alex, you need to get this guy into a tub of water. Their planet is supposed to be mostly swamp. There's a bath upstairs." Harkness touched the creature's arm. "Thank you."

The alien's life signs destabilised. Dr. Lin enlisted the help of two guards, carrying it up the stairs into a bath. Johnson heard the water running.

"How do we save it?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"We need to interrogate it. The invasion force … "

He snapped, "There won't be an invasion. They're pacifists. They don't have any weapons, they don't take over planets. They're scientists. They think species that have guns and wars are … "

"Primitive?"

"Evil."

Cooper looked at Harkness. "I wonder if they've met Sarah Jane? Sounds like they'd have got on well."

Harkness said, "They'd have done a lot better if they had." He went over to the mother and child. "Hey, Tiger. How are you feeling?"

The boy said, "Where's the alien?"

"The alien's sick, sweetheart," said the mother. "Uncle Jack's here to save it, isn't he?"

"I'll try."

Harkness went up the stairs. When he was out of earshot, the mother said, "He drives me up the wall sometimes."

"Likewise," Johnson couldn't help but say aloud.

The woman offered her a bitter smile.

* * *

Jack sprinted up the stairs to the bathroom. Alex was working on the alien in the tub, coaxing oxygen into it, trying to keep its blood flowing. Nicely done, in all honesty, for someone who'd never worked on a live alien before.

"How's he doing?"

"Not good." Alex kept the water flowing, but the alien was clearly fading. "Heart rate is dropping. I'd shock it, but I wouldn't know where to start."

Jack placed a hand on Alex's shoulder. "Do your best."

"My bag's downstairs. Get me a shot of adrenalin."

Jack hurried back down. Bag. Bag. Bag! He grabbed the whole thing, digging through it as he ran. "Here."

Alex administered the shot right in the alien's chest. Its mouth opened for a scream, but nothing came out. It fell, lifeless, into the water.

"Do something!"

"Sorry, sir. I can't. We tried."

Jack sighed heavily. Then he brushed his hand over the staring eyes.

* * *

"I want to see him," Steven said. His face was pale and pinched, although he was so much healthier than before, so much more alive, and Alice wanted to hold him and never let him grow up, never let him leave.

"All right," she said instead, and she took his hand. "We're going up to see the alien," she said to her father, whose face was heavy with the news. "This is still our house."

He nodded, let them go.

Alice watched as Steven went to the bath, the same one where he scrubbed every day, and took the hand of the dead alien, tears running down his face. Completely unafraid.

"I'm going to miss you," he said to it. "So much."

She turned away, not wanting to see. He'd had it right in their house, right under her nose, made it his best friend, and she'd never noticed. And now, he'd lost it just like he kept losing people in his life.

"Can I have a minute to say goodbye?"

"Of course, sweetheart." Alice went into her own bedroom, which had been tossed and examined by the guards, Christ. She sat on her bed, wondering if everything had gone wrong the day she was born.

* * *

Zie was floating. Everything was warm, and quiet. Zie had clamped down zir biosigns as a last instinctive attempt to hide, and had stopped them instead. When zir brain ran out of oxygen, zie would merely float away.

_Child._

Zir heart gave a lurch. Captain?

_Child, we heard your call._

Captain!

Joy suffused zir, and zie opened zir eyes to see the child, weeping. The thread between them had been cut, for the child's sake, and now its thoughts were lost to zir.

"Steven?"

The child's head shot up. "You're okay?"

Okay. Zie felt life thrumming back into zir, now that the poison had run its course, now that the thoughts of zir Captain filled zir mind. They were coming. Zie had to be ready. "Home. Go home. Now."

"Home? The rocket ship?"

There was no explaining to the child that there was no ship. "Yes."

The child looked around. "Back in the woods?"

"Yes."

* * *

Ianto had slipped away from the others. Jack and Gwen had the situation in hand, and he wanted to get readings of his own in peace. It wasn't hard to suss out which bedroom belonged to the boy. Model aeroplanes and rockets and other toys were scattered through the room, reminding him he needed to find a present for Mica. He wondered how many of these toys had been gifts from Jack. Every time Ianto thought he had a grasp on Jack, on who he was and what he'd seen, there was something new. Sometimes it delighted and amazed him, sometimes it merely reminded him that he was a temporary note in Jack's very long life.

This was a "temporary note" kind of day.

He'd known about the Carters for three months. He'd been trying to track down Jack for an emergency when the comms were down, and found his car crossing the Severn. Once Ianto had accessed the CCTV and found him outside the house, he hadn't known what to think. Instead of pointlessly levelling accusations, he'd researched Alice's background and found an ex-lover and their child, though not the way he'd expected. With nothing to do with the information, not without starting what was sure to be a nasty row, he'd simply held onto it, hoping that eventually, Jack would entrust him with this secret as well.

Ianto scanned the room, the device fitting awkwardly in his hand. Plenty of Rift energy here, but dissipated in a fashion that suggested it was entirely due to the alien's presence, and not a new incursion.

The scanner beeped, suddenly jumping off the scale, and Ianto swore at it, tapping it against a desk with a bit more force than necessary. The scanner continued to beep, and he glared. Then he took in exactly what it was he was reading.

This was bad.

"Jack!"

* * *

Jack went back to the stairs, but Ianto was already taking them two at a time. He'd fall and break his neck if he wasn't careful. "What?"

"Rift activity is going off the scale. I thought it was an error."

Gwen looked over his shoulder at the scanner as Ianto handed it to him. She said, "That's bad."

"Yeah." This was the largest build-up they'd seen in months, maybe since Abaddon. Bad was a good start.

Johnson said, "Is it the same aliens? The scientists?"

"Probably."

Lois said, "The scientists whose dead colleague is upstairs in the bathtub?"

* * *

"Come on," Steven whispered. "This way."

Mum and Gran had always told him to have at least two exits whenever possible. Safety, Mum said. Security, Gran had said. The back stairs led out through Mum's room. In case of fire, they had an extra way out. Probably hadn't thought of stashing an alien this way, though.

Steven opened the door and brought the alien inside, shutting it quickly.

"Steven, what's going on?" He froze. Mum was in her room, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief. She took in Steven and the alien. "What are you doing?"

"He needs to go home, Mum. The other aliens are coming for him. We have to get him out of here before the Men in Black take him away."

"Men in … " She stopped. "When this is all done, I need to sit you down with Uncle Jack, and we're going to have a long talk."

"About what?"

"Never you mind right now." She stood and went to the bedroom door. "Do you know where the site is?"

"Yeah. We went there the other day."

Mum frowned, then sighed. "At least you were playing outside. All right, can you get him back there?"

"What're you going to do?"

"I'm going to distract them." She gave him a kiss and a big hug. "I'll be there as soon as I can. You are not to go off to Mars with him, understood?"

"Yes, Mum."

Steven unlatched the back door, and taking the alien's hand, led him quietly outside.

* * *

Jack heard a door slam upstairs, and Alice marched down like the wrath of an angry goddess.

"You!" She stomped as she had when she was fourteen, every footstep shaking the house, and Jack unconsciously took a step back as she advanced, planting her forefinger on his chest. "You waltz in here, Mister Action Hero, guns in the air, boots all over my nice rugs, and then you leave a dead damn alien in my bathtub and your grandson a sobbing mess! There's a reason you didn't have custody when I was a child!"

"Alice, look. Now's not the time … " He was not backing away from his daughter. Really.

"It's a bloody perfectly good time! You can't just come in and expect everything to be all sunshine and roses!"

Lois said, "He did save Steven's life."

Alice rounded on her, and if Lois was prone to squeaking, she would have under Alice's glare. "That's why I haven't shot him!"

She turned back to Jack and poked him in the chest again. "You always bring trouble wherever you go, and now there's an alien! In my house! Mum would be bloody furious with you right now."

Ianto said, "The activity is peaking. The Rift is opening. We need to get on site."

Jack took Alice's hands in his. They were long overdue for this conversation, but it was going to have to wait. "If I start apologising now for your entire childhood, we'll be here all day, and we do not have the time." He said over his shoulder, "Get the alien. We'll take the body to the site. I'll try to explain."

Alice pulled away and moved in front of the stairs, blocking the way. "You'll wait, is what you'll do. Steven's up there saying goodbye to his best mate, and you will give him time to do it properly, or so help me … "

"Jack!" Gwen's shout caught his attention from where she stood near the door. "The UNIT guards said they just saw Steven and the alien pulling a runner on his bicycle."

Jack stopped dead, then turned to Alice. Alice smiled at him sweetly.

He started, "I am going to … "

"Jack," said Ianto warningly, looking at the scanner.

Jack let out a low, annoyed noise. "Everyone. In the car. Now!" As they hurried, Jack said to Alice, "You are the most stubborn, conniving … "

"Confidence," said Ianto.

"Excuse me?"

They piled into the SUV, and no one stopped Alice from joining them. "As in, confidence artist. It's a profession."

Gwen said, "There was an apple. It fell from the tree." Jack started the car's engine. "It didn't fall far."

"Shut up," said Jack and Alice at the same time. The others were careful not to laugh.

* * *

The bicycle practically flew, he pedalled so quickly. The alien should have been heavy and weird and awkward, but something about the wind made them both lighter than air, almost. It was wicked cool.

Behind them, he heard the engines roar to life from the army men. Maybe Uncle Jack and Mum, too. He didn't get why Uncle Jack was there, but Mum said she'd explain later. Faster and faster they went up through the woods, the old walking trails that should have caught and turned his wheels, and this was nothing like anything he'd ever done before. He glanced down, saw the air under his bike, and he let out a whoop of joy.

The alien was so happy, it almost glowed, and Steven was happy too, though it wasn't the same, not exactly. For a while, it'd been like thinking the alien's thoughts, and that was gone, and he was sad, a little.

"Here. Home." Steven's bike swerved then, and they crashed hard. Steven pulled himself up, and then helped the alien.

Lightening flashed around them. As Steven watched, a bright glow formed in the middle, and ten aliens looking just like his alien came out of a door that he swore wasn't really there. Not a rocket ship at all, but much cooler. He gaped.

One last thought, distant, came to him from the alien, _Captain!_, and the link was broken for good.

* * *

Zir species did not weep tears, but zir heart was filled with such joy. They had come back for zir! At last! Already the Technician was readying the machine to return them home.

Zie turned to Steven. "Thank you."

"I am gonna miss you," it said, the wet on its cheeks again.

From the end of the road, they heard tyres and rocks. The adults had come. Zie could not stay. Zie drew Steven into an embrace.

"Steven!" The parent called, and the adults came into the clearing.

"Go," said Steven. "Go home." Zie waddled towards zir friends, felt enwreathed in their love as fingers and arms embraced.

"Jack," said one of the adults looking at its own machine, "the Rift is going critical."

Another adult said, "What do we do? Jack?"

The loud adult that wasn't the parent came forward. "You are fracturing our world by being here. Your visits are breaking the Rift into pieces. Please, help us."

The Technician let out a call: _Ready,_then tilted zir head and moved something else on the machine, a smile at zir lips.

The last thing zie heard was the adult with the machine say, "Wait. Now this is odd."

* * *

Rooftops were totally his thing. Fresh air, great view, and very few people willing to come all the way up here to bother him, unless he brought them up himself.

"So you were wrong again." It was the first thing Johnson had said since they'd come up here.

"So I was," he said agreeably. Gray and John had broken the Rift, and the Botanists had repaired it as casually as Ianto repaired a hole in Jack's coat. There were so many questions he wanted to ask them, so many things he wanted to know, but they'd collected their friend, fixed the hole, and vanished. He didn't expect to see them again, not for many lifetimes, if ever.

"Is this a more normal level, then? Weevils and Hoix and spaceships every day?"

He nodded. "And time travellers, too. But we're not running ourselves ragged anymore." Three days, and so far, knock on wood, everything had been back like before, with only one Earth-shattering crisis at a time.

"You won't be needing our help, then."

"That's a particularly delicate way of asking why I haven't Retconned or killed you yet."

Johnson shrugged. "I'm trying to learn delicate. It's a struggle."

"For me, too." They stood for a while, watching the city. "Of my last several hires, all of them betrayed me at least once, two shot me in the head, and frankly, there isn't one of them I haven't considered stuffing full of Retcon and shipping overseas. If I had any sense, I'd do it to that pair down in the Hub right now, but I'm a selfish bastard, and I kind of want to keep them." He turned to her. "So. You want to stay?"

"I was sent to spy on you. I locked you up and seized control and put your family in danger."

"I know. But I'm putting it in your favour that you did that to try and save the world. Just don't do it again, and if we can avoid shooting me in the head, I'd appreciate it. This is Torchwood. Everyone's got demons to exorcise here." He added mentally that now they knew to keep a close eye on her, and that was easier to accomplish with her in front of them. "Do. You. Want. To. Stay?"

Johnson looked at the city. "I do."

Jack grinned. Alex had already said no, though he'd remain until Martha could be installed. "Good. And speaking of those two words, for your first real duty, you, Lois, and Alex are covering the Hub this weekend. Try not to commit another coup while we're out of town, and if you do, let Lois be in charge."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Gwen came home at six.

"I'm glad you're here," said Rhys from the kitchen. "We'll have plenty of time. My wife doesn't usually get home until midnight." He leaned out so she could see the twinkle in his eye.

She laughed and kissed him. "That gives us hours, then."

"It's fish for dinner."

"Perfect." She took off her shoes. "Remind me, did you get your good suit pressed after that do with Banana?"

"Not yet."

"Be a love and get it in tomorrow? You're going to need it."

"For what?"

"Saturday. You're my Plus One."

* * *

They were late, but they'd come back from the wedding last night to find Johnson, Alex and Lois fighting off a metal-eating alien that had landed on Bute Street, and that had led to chasing Weevils, and really, Ianto had only slept about four hours and all of that after six AM.

"It's getting better," Jack had said as they'd fallen into bed, too tired even to undress. Ianto knew he was right. The Rift wasn't acting up anymore, not to the degree it had, but their jobs never did go from nine to five, even on the best days. Gwen was probably still asleep.

Ianto played with the pink-wrapped package in his good hand. Alice, veteran of many a birthday party, had said anything pony-themed would likely be a hit with a girl turning six. He hoped she was right. (She was funny, that Alice. After Jack introduced him and Gwen properly, she'd said that she'd never met vessels before. So strange.)

Jack parked the car at the end of the street without prompting. Actually, he'd driven all the way here without asking directions, making Ianto think he wasn't the only one who'd done some research. "Are you both sneaky, suspicious bastards?" was not listed as a question in any of the compatibility quizzes in the magazines Lois had placed in the Tourist Office, but perhaps it ought to be.

"When do you want me to come get you?"

"I was thinking," Ianto said, "that since I finally met your mad family, you might be inclined to meet mine?" It came out as a question rather than the casual statement he'd intended. A quick smile would likely not help and would almost certainly make the request sound even more pathetic than it had to his own ears.

"I don't know," said Jack. "Wedding together yesterday, meeting the family today." He got out of the car and took the gift so Ianto could get out more easily. "People are going to start calling us a couple."

"Heaven forbid," Ianto said, but there was Jack locking the car, and there was Jack's hand warmly in his, and here they were walking together towards Rhi's house in front of all the neighbours, and that was Jack's perfect smile set in place as they stood at her door and knocked.

* * *

Epilogue

* * *

Now that the job offer was real, some thought would need to be put to living arrangements. Names of Cardiff estate agents scrolled by on the screen, listings for flats, none really appealing.

The mobile, the one that never went in to the Hub, rang.

"I'm here."

"Report."

"I'm in. They don't suspect a thing." Which was surprising. Harkness's file said he'd been a con man in his past life. He surely knew that if he could see someone's right hand, the left was already picking his pocket. Agent Johnson was good at planning, at command, and in the field, but as a spy, she'd stuck out in Day-Glo colours. Exactly according to plan.

"Excellent. Keep us apprised."

"Yes, sir."

Lois smiled.

* * *

The End

* * *

AN: The next story in this series is "The Boy Who Lived."


End file.
